Little Hunts
by uniquely fresh
Summary: Cristina decides she wants a baby with Owen. *Disclaimer--I own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

It was when Cristina was a teenager that she made up her mind about children. She would not have any. She struggled with the divorce of her parents, and when her father died a part of her went with him. She did not want to bring a child into the world knowing the possibility of those things happening. She did not want a child to feel that loss. Babies would not be apart of her life. They held no place in her future, not with the career path she chose.

Some years ago during her residency an army Trauma surgeon waltzed out of an ambulance and in the hospital of Seattle Grace and swept her off her back. He stole a kiss and her heart, and never gave it back. They dated two years before getting engaged, and six months after that they married and have been to the present day. It was when Cristina was Head of Cardiology that she changed her mind about children. She did not know what brought about this change but there it was. Perhaps it was seeing the sight of her fellow attendings and residents have children and still manage to be great doctors. Maybe it was the fact that she conquered nearly all of her career goals, aside from the Harper Avery, which of course in her mind would be awarded as time pressed on. Or perhaps it was the way Owen naturally made her want things in life that everyone else typically did. She did not know what triggered this change, but it was there, she wanted a baby.

One night while lying in bed Cristina fiddled with the idea of telling Owen of the abrupt change. The subject of children rarely came up. She had always voiced aloud that she had no desire to have any, and Owen never gave any indication that he felt otherwise she assumed he shared her same desire. Yet here she was, resting easy on her husband's chest ready to tell him what's been lurking in her mind.

Cristina cleared her throat and blurted out, "This morning, I threw away my birth control pills."

Owen's breathing paused, which made Cristina start to feel slightly nervous. When it returned he finally spoke.

"So what are you saying?" Owen knew what was coming but he just needed to be certain. He needed to hear it from her mouth.

She lifted her head so that their eyes met, "I-I-want to have a baby."

Hearing those words were like music to his ears. He always wanted children. Even though Cristina profusely voiced that no children were apart of their future, he knew otherwise. He knew she would change her mind, he just did not know when, and he never forced the idea onto her. As always he waited patiently and let it naturally come to her. His eyes filled with joy and excitement, and a smile she had never seen flashed on his face.

He rolled over on top of her and pressed his lips to hers.

She pushed him away, "Did you hear me?"

"Yes I did. Now hush, and let's get started on making us a baby."

With no more words spoken, they spent the night making beautiful, sensual love.

After that night they tried to conceive in every place possible. It started in all rooms and surfaces of their home and ventured to the hospital. They shared tender moments in on call rooms and quick and dirty in elevators and each other's offices.

When two months elapsed and no symptoms of pregnancy were on the horizon Cristina suggested they both get checked out.

The results of their tests showed no signs of infertility. They were both healthy and able to reproduce. They would just have to wait.

Three months later Owen found himself making a trip to the local drug store to purchase not one, but three pregnancy test. He felt only one was required, but Cristina's demanding tone told him not to argue.

When Owen returned to their house he found Cristina doing the pee dance in the doorway of the bathroom.

"God, it's about time! My bladder is about to rupture!" She yelled in frustration and pain.

Rather than see her struggle opening each box, he tore them all open with ease and quickness.

Cristina, at last began to release the gallons of fluids she had consumed, while swiping each pregnancy test in the process. She laid them out on the bathroom counter and gestured to Owen to start the evil five minute countdown.

One plus sign, two double lines, and a digital reading that flashed the words pregnant had them dancing from the bathroom and all through out the house. They were ecstatic. _Finally_. They both thought.

The months to follow were a great journey for both of them. Cristina found herself undaunted by this pregnancy. She experienced no morning sickness, dry heaves or dizziness. Her lovely baby was simply growing in her belly. Owen was already being fatherly; making sure Cristina made it to all her check ups, taking all her vitamins and forcing her to eat healthy. He even had to call her favorite Chinese restaurant to make certain they did not deliver to their house.

When it came to know the sex of the baby Owen begged Cristina to wait until their child was born. He wanted to be surprised, and although it killed her not to know she agreed.

Slim and slender. Cristina had always held that physique, very petite, but now her stomach had increased dramatically in size. She began to feel the weight she gained with each step she took, especially after standing on her feet for hours in the OR. Cristina would have continued to endure the aching feet and back had Owen not force her to cut back on her hours. She needed to rest.

At night Owen and Cristina would lay in bed admiring the ultrasound pictures. Thinking of names that they thought would match the outlining of their baby.

As Cristina's 9th month rounded she put up no fight when Owen told her it was time for bed rest. Surgery she once completed easily took a little longer. Her belly would sometimes get in the way of where she needed to stand during surgery. The water retention in her hands and feet did not help the situation. Neither did the sudden jolts her little one would sporadically send. She could no longer walk properly. She waddled like a penguin, and it took great deal of strength to not attack those who laughed at her.

At home she would read medical journals, watch surgeries, sleep, and eat. Owen would fix her bountiful breakfasts, and prepare her lunch with healthy snacks to hold her over until he got home to fix her a great feast for dinner. There were moments where Cristina longed to be in the hospital, but she held on to the thought that medicine was not going anywhere. A thought so out of character for her, because she breathed and sought it out as if it were one day going to disappear. It scared her a little, but she suppressed it.

"Ohh our bed as never looked so good. I am exhausted; I need 500cc's of sleep." Cristina whined out as Owen helped her walk to the side of the bed.

Before she could even get a leg up, or allow her head to touch the softness of her pillow gushes of amniotic fluid splashed onto the floor. They both gave each other looks that said this is it. Next thing Cristina knows she's in the hospital being pestered to do breathing exercises.

"If she tells me to breathe one more time, I'm going to kill her." Cristina said with frustration in her voice. She was taking the precise deep breaths and releasing it slowly. It did not ease her birthing pains at all. The stubborn person she was she denied pain medication. She refused to allow anyone to think she was weak.

Owen tried to hold in his laugh but he clearly failed at that.

Meredith almost joined in but turned her attention to the nurse and guided her out of the room.

Ten hours of yelling, back rubs and ice chips Cristina was ready to push.

With encouraging yells of "push" from Owen and Meredith she pushed out a beautiful baby boy in 4 tries.

His father was overwhelmed with joy, as his eyes became watery. His mother however was still in a great deal of pain, and wanted to know why.

"Okay, I don't understand my baby is out, why am I still in pain and feel the need to push again!"

The OBGYN gave a nervous look around to the fellow nurses; she did not know how she missed this.

Another baby was ready to make its way out.

"Okay Dr. Yang, it looks like you're having twins. This one must have been hiding right the other." Cristina tried to show an emotion of shock, but the pain she was feeling did not project it correctly.

"What do you mean? How did you not there were two babies!?" She screamed.

Owen interrupted, "Cristina! Push!"

Not being able to withstand much more pain, she pushed the second baby out in the same 4 pushes.

There they were, twin boys. Both spitting images of Owen. The only visible trait they shared of Cristina was her full lips.


	2. Chapter 2

One baby; that is what Cristina envisioned when she first told Owen she wanted to have one.

One baby, that is what displayed on the monitor during the ultrasound appointment.

One baby; a two person job, her and Owen made two people.

Now before her lay two babies, twins.

When Cristina's pain frittered away it was instantly replaced with anxiety. She was overwhelmed. Two babies multiplied everything; responsibility and furniture. All the fears of being a mother that undaunted her during pregnancy finally materialized. Doubt prowled its way into her mind, and it stayed there while she watched her boys wheeled away to the nursery.

Owen's initial state of shock dissolved at the sight of his identical newborn sons and was replaced with indescribable happiness. He could not wait to show them off, and brag at how good looking they are. Buying another set of everything they already purchased excited him. He thought of the adorable matching outfits they could wear.

Once the twins were of out sight Owen turned around to his wife.

With a wide smile spread across his face he expressed his happiness, "Oh my God Cristina, we have twins! How great is that?"

When he saw the emotion projected on her face his smile disappeared, and become concerned.

"Cristina…"he said as he sat beside her. She simply looked up at him with worried eyes.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her, "Cristina, what's wrong? I thought you'd be happy. Talk to me."

"Owen we have twins. How are we going to take care of twins? How am I going to take care of twins with the hours you work, and the hours I'll work." She was scared.

"Cristina, everything will be fine. That should be the least of your worries. Our babies are going to be well taken care of."

"What-what if I'm not a good mother? I don't know how to be mother."

Owen held her close, "Cristina that's impossible. You'll be a great mother. Remember that I've never done this either, it's okay to be nervous, but it'll come naturally. Your motherly instincts will kick it. You can do this."

"Yeah," Meredith abruptly said, "Cristina, if I did it, then you can do it. So shake off those nerves. You have two beautiful healthy twin boys. On my days off I'll pop in to help, and I know Iz, Alex, and George will too."

Their words of encouragement comforted Cristina. The doubt that lurked into her mind was swapped with the thought of her sons, and a smile spread across her face as they were being brought back into the room. They were cleaned up, swaddled tightly in blankets with matching blue beanies. Owen held one and Cristina held the other.

Meredith's pager began to buzz, "Ugh, I got to run, give them kisses for me."

The tiny life being placed in Cristina's arms brought about earthshaking feelings. They were unspeakable. Her son fit perfectly in her arms, and she began to swoon over how precious and beautiful he was. She held him close and planted gentle kisses on his forehead. Owen brought their other son close enough so Cristina could softly do the same.

Owen was simply enamored by the sight he was seeing.

"So," he said through his smile, "I know we agreed on the name Ethan, but now we need another."

"Hmmm," Cristina pondered as she gazed into each of her sons' eyes, "what do you think?"

"I like Evan." Owen confessed. Cristina nodded in approval. "So who's who?" he asked.

"I've got Ethan and you've got Evan." Owen agreed and gave Cristina a tender kiss.

They spent the next few hours admiring Ethan and Evan to pieces.

Owen was talking to each of them, telling of the cute crib and toys that awaited them at home. He spoke of all the things he would teach them; how to play baseball, the guitar, drums, and when the time came how to be gentlemen.

Cristina on the other hand was rather quiet. She was taken in by their beauty and put her in a tranquil state. It would be a few months before their eye color would appear but she knew they would be exactly like their father's.

As she ran her fingers through each of their ginger red hair the thought of how smart they would be, it made her smile. She would purchase Ethan and Evan an extensive book collection, including all the ones she read as a child. She even jumped ahead and thought of what great surgeons they would make, if they chose that path. One thing she hoped they would steer clear from was the military. Cristina was already becoming protective and attached. A small smirk appeared on her face when she thought of the future girls they would bring home. She instantly knew none would be good enough, already holding such high standards for her boys.

When they finally fell asleep Owen gently laid them in their hospital cribs, kissing them lightly.

Before he could climb into bed and spoon with Cristina his pager started buzzing.

"Damn it," he said annoyed, "9-1-1, I have to go. Now that they're sleeping try and get some rest. I'll try and hurry back." He kissed Cristina and although difficult, left the room.

She adjusted her hospital bed, fluffed her pillow and began to drift to sleep thinking maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

It had only been about thirty minutes when she awoke to little "coos" her sons were making. Her eyebrows furrowed as the sounds started to change. _What are they doing? _It was when the smell hit her that she knew. They were making potty. She was aware of the special bond twins shared but did not know it was this close. _Twins even poop together? _

Cristina became nervous. She instantly remembered so many years ago as an intern when she attempted to change little tuck's poop diaper and struggled tremendously. Now here she was getting ready to change not one, but two.

She sat up, and looked around in hopes that Owen or one of her friends were returning but nobody was in sight. She sighed; she would have to do it alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Owen found it difficult to focus during surgery. The faces of his twin boys kept entering his mind. He wanted to hurry and get back to them and Cristina; his family.

Bailey took notice, "Hunt, get out of here."

"Excuse me Dr. Bailey?" A baffled Owen asked.

"Get out," Bailey repeated, "you've covered mostly everything, I can handle this liver laceration."

"Dr. Bailey I'm almost finish-"

"Go!" she said forcefully, "Hurry up and go see your babies."

Owen did not need to be told a third time, he quickly discarded his gown and gloves, and scrubbed out in record time.

He jetted out of the scrub room and jogged to catch the elevator.

Meanwhile Cristina got up from the bed and retrieved the appropriate supplies; cloth wipes, wet with warm water and two diapers. As she neared her twins' hospital cribs she could tell Evan was not done. It was good news; it would give her time to change Ethan.

As she un-swaddled Ethan she crinkled her nose,"Oh you two are so lucky you're cute."

She took a deep breath. "Okay you can do this Cristina," she mumbled to herself.

She contemplated whether to slide the fresh diaper underneath before unsnapping the dirty one. After several yes and no's, she placed it beside the crib. _Okay Cristina, stop thinking, let it come naturally. Ugh where are you motherly instincts?_

At last she finally unfastened Ethan's diaper tabs.

"Oohh God," she gagged at the icky contents the diaper contained.

She gently held his ankles together, slid the dirty diaper away and disposed of it in the nearby trash can.

Cristina quickly armed herself with a wipe and began to clean up Ethan with her head slightly turned away making a face in the process.

Her hand slightly jumped at the sound of a woman's voice.

"Dr. Yang, do you need some help?" a nurse asked standing by the doorway.

Cristina instantly went into defense mode, "No, I'm doing just fine. Go check on someone else, and see if their pillow needs fluffing."

The nurses knew Cristina all too well. She simply shook her head.

"Alright then, I'll leave you to it. Oh and by the way it might help if you actually look at where you're wiping."

Cristina glared at her and the nurse left with a smirk on her face.

Returning her attention to Ethan she finished cleaning him up and placed a fresh clean diaper under his bottom. She lightly sprinkled baby powder in the diaper and tried to fasten it quickly because Evan was finished and letting her know he was ready to be changed.

Cristina repeatedly tried to fasten the tabs on the necessary spot on the diaper but they kept refusing to stick.

"What is wrong with this diaper?" she said in frustration.

Evan's little whimpers started to get louder.

"Oh I'm sorry sweetie, mommy is trying." She said apologetically.

A familiar hand was placed on Cristina's shoulder. She let out a sigh of relief.

"Evan has left you a welcome back present in his diaper."

He lightly chuckled and kissed her forehead, "Honey, turn the diaper over. That's why the tabs aren't sticking."

Cristina felt like a klutz, she quickly flipped it over and sure enough the tabs stuck. She felt a little embarrassed, but refused to let it get to her. Now holding Ethan in her arms, comforting him she averted her eyes to watch Owen.

"Well since you're such an expert let's see you in diaper changing action."

He smiled, "Alright."

Owen grabbed a clean diaper and gently slid it underneath Evan. He unfastened his dirty diaper, discarding it in the trash. He took a few wipes and cleaned him up. Cristina was quite impressed at how he did it with such ease. It was as if he had been doing it for years. She was a little jealous until Evan made her laugh.

As Owen hovered over him to grab the baby powder he felt a warm liquid hitting the lower part of his scrub top. "Ahh man."

Cristina continued to laugh as Meredith entered the room.

"Haha, you can expect that to happen a lot more." Meredith reassured him.

"Great, can't wait." Owen said as he retrieved another diaper and changed Evan. He handed him to Meredith afterward. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up, I'll be back in a sec."

When Owen returned Evan was now in the arms of Cristina, and took Ethan from Meredith.

"I'll take over from here," and he joined Cristina in bed.

"Gosh, I cannot get over at how adorable these kids are. I would love to stay but I gotta get home to my two boys." She walked over to the bed and said goodbye to the twins.

"Good night Owen, and Cristina since you're getting discharged tomorrow I'll just visit you when you're home. It's mine and Derek's day off, and he's dying to see the twins."

Meredith left and Cristina and Owen turned their attention back to their babies.

- - - - - - - - - -

"12 weeks?!?!?" Cristina exclaimed.

"Yes Dr. Yang, 12 weeks," Dr. Shah repeated.

"Does the same go for Dr. Hunt?"

"He didn't give birth Dr. Yang. He doesn't need time to heal."

"He helped make them. It's only fair." She pleaded to Dr. Shah as if she were a judge.

"Dr. Yang that's something you need to discuss with your husband."

"But-," she stopped herself from interjecting once she saw Owen. He gave her a look that said please be quiet and listen, which she did in annoyance.

Dr. Shah continued explaining postpartum care, reminding her to schedule a check up six weeks from now. She told Cristina to expect mood swings, and to be sure to perform kegel exercises to help tone the pelvic muscles. When she finished rambling, Cristina continued signing all the necessary papers while Owen properly secured Ethan and Evan in car seats.

Once they settled on the road Cristina took this opportunity to take a quick nap.

While on the road Owen drove five miles under the speed limit. He was very cautious while changing lanes, and turning. The other drivers that graced the streets made him nervous and upset. They all seemed to be driving too fast, and feared they were putting his sons in danger.

When he finally pulled up to the driveway of their home he relaxed, and gently nudged Cristina to let her know they arrived. She sluggishly made her way inside, and brought the bassinets to their room next to their bed.

Owen brought them inside and gently placed Ethan and Evan in their bassinets. He kissed them tenderly on the cheek and joined Cristina in bed. As they spooned together, they both followed suit with their twins and drifted off to sleep. Both of them sharing the same thought; they're a family now.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the years Owen and Cristina had become accustomed to being sleep deprived. They were used to the sudden buzzing or beeping of their pagers detaching them from their sleep. How ever tired, they efficiently worked through their shifts, assessed patients accurately, and executed surgery flawlessly. They mastered their crafts, experts of surgery and medicine. However, when they attained their newly titles of Mommy and Daddy their experience in the field were that of an intern. Their only familiarity with newborns consisted of observing other mothers and fathers.

Although Cristina was godmother to Meredith's two boys she has yet to baby sit. Of course she held them briefly as infants, but not once did she offer to change or feed them. When they began walking and talking, able to comprehend what people were saying is when a true bond was formed. Now time spent with her godsons consist of competitive hours of monopoly or poker. Owen was no different. He had two nephews but the bond formed with them was done as toddlers. Due to his tours in Iraq he missed their birth or any chance to baby sit them as infants. As toddlers he was accustomed to giving piggy-back rides, teaching how to throw football, or playing baseball and now as teenagers how to be gentlemen. Ethan and Evan were going to show them exactly what they were missing out on.

Their first night home as a family was quite the adventure. Rather than the abrupt sounds of pagers, it was Ethan and Evan who woke Cristina and Owen. In fact, multiple times with their soft whimpers. Interpreting their cries turned out to be quite the challenge. At the hospital, the majority of their patients was conscious and was able to tell them what was wrong and what hurt. If they were not, their visible injuries typically led them in the right direction of what to do. Most toddlers they encountered were able to talk and tell them when they are hungry or if they felt sick. They fell into the comfort of that, but Ethan and Evan did none of those things. It would take time to comprehend each different cry. Cristina and Owen played the guessing game the first night.

At times Ethan and Evan cried in unison, or one would start prompting the other to join. Either way both Cristina and Owen got up together. Depending on the time they deciphered whether it was time for a bottle. If not, then they would immediately check to see if a diaper change was needed. When both of those options were ruled out, they simply comforted their sons.

Throughout the night, tiredness did creep up on them. These latest tasks brought new meaning to the word sleepy. During a diaper change Owen found himself slightly disoriented. With Ethan he found himself placing the same wet diaper right back on. With Evan he mixed up the steps in diaper changing. Instead of wiping first and then placing baby powder, he did the exact opposite. He sprinkled powder only to wipe it right off and scattered some more.

Cristina made her share of tired mistakes too. While making their bottles she caught herself attempting to place odd lids on them or almost take a swig of the bottle thinking it was for her. When Evan spit up milk on his pajama top she changed him and placed it on backwards. And when Ethan wet his pajama bottoms she placed both legs in one pant leg. The second try she put them on backwards, but finally got it right on the third try.

Ethan and Evan woke up six times throughout the night; to be changed, to be fed, but mostly just to be held. The sun was rising when they finally took a lengthy nap, and Cristina and Owen did not waste any time falling fast asleep with them.

- - - - - -

It was noon when Meredith and Derek dropped by. They greeted Cristina and Owen with gifts for their second unexpected baby – another crib, bouncer, and activity gym.

"You two look like you had a fun last night," Meredith said as she saw Owen and Cristina's tired filled eyes.

"Oh yeah, we did," Owen said as he handed over Ethan to Derek, "these two are a handful. It's a good thing I took two weeks off from work."

"Wow," Derek said in amazement, "they look exactly like you Owen."

"Yeah, lucky kids they are," he said proudly.

"Lucky? You mean poor kids," Derek said jokingly.

"Hey Derek, you got time to help me put together all these things?"

"Oh yeah, of course," he said as he handed Ethan to Meredith. He discarded his coat and rolled up his sleeves.

Meredith joined Cristina on the couch who was burping Evan.

"You might want to burp him or you'll have horrid smelling milk thrown up on your sweater." Cristina said.

Meredith chuckled, "Aww you're catching on."

"Yeah, after being thrown up on several times last night."

As Owen and Derek began removing several parts from the crib box, Meredith lightly nudged Cristina.

"Oh this is gonna be good," she said with a smile, "I've never seen Derek build anything. He had the department stores assemble our kids things." Cristina was not surprised.

They both straightened up watching both of their husbands intently.

When all the pieces and were laid out on the floor Owen went to retrieve a small tool box while Derek looked over the detailed instructions.

"Okay, let's start." Derek stated.

It began with the crib. Although Derek read the instructions and overlooked the detailed pictures he was still clueless. The army taught Owen to be innovative but it meant just slapping things together in a hurry, no matter what he used as long as it got the job done and or if it was sturdy. In this project he had to use proper screws and follow the instructions to the tee.

As they attempted to assemble the crib Meredith and Cristina watched and shared several laughs. They watched as Derek aligned parts together but one of them being upside down. He tried to use a Phillips screw driver for an allen bolt that required an Allen wrench.

The only trouble Owen encountered was difficulty following instructions. He wanted to use any his own method to assemble a sturdy crib. He wanted an excuse to use his electric drill, but refrained and did his best to use the simple tools required for the project.

It took them four hours to build both cribs properly. Not too bad for beginners. By then Ethan and Evan were fast asleep in their bassinets.

Meredith and Derek had to get going, George, the ultimate baby sitter needed to be back at the hospital by five.

When they were gone Owen collapsed on top of Cristina.

"I'm exhausted." He said as he nuzzled in Cristina's neck. She ran her hands gently through his hair until he fell asleep.

Later that evening Cristina was off in their bedroom telling tall medical tales to Ethan and Evan. Owen was in the kitchen, as usual making dinner, when their house phone rang. Cristina almost answered but Owen beat her to it. The voice on the other end was a familiar one. Cristina figured it was one of his relatives and continued with her stories.

A few moments later Owen walked into their bedroom.

"Brace yourself," he interrupted, "That was your mother. She's coming this weekend, to meet the twins."

"Oh god. You should have told her we weren't going to be here."

"Cristina, don't be so mean. She deserves to be apart of their lives."

Cristina made a face, "Why? She'll just teach them how to be frivolous or worse how to upholster things."

Owen chuckled and kissed Cristina gently on her forehead, "It'll be fine. Just be that nice person I know is in there somewhere."


	5. Chapter 5

Cristina loved her mother, dearly in fact. Although she did not always express it in the best manners, the love was undoubtedly there. However, she always felt their mother-daughter relationship was at its best when from afar. The flaw in their relationship mainly boiled down to respect, and of course Cristina's unwillingness to share details of her personal life, or show interest in the girly-girl category. Her mother could not respect the fact that her daughter chose the path of such a high powered, time consuming career. In the end she felt it would lead to a miserable life alone and the only reason she was staying afloat was because of Owen. It troubled her that Cristina, her only daughter showed such disinterest in fine art, fashion, and decorating. She could never fathom Cristina's choice to pick science and medicine over them, considering she raised her daughter around those things. At the end of the day they simply would never understand each other.

Saturday approached with swift wings, and Cristina was not pleased about it. Owen left early to meet Mrs. Rubenstein at the airport. It was just like her to book the earliest flight arriving and the latest flight departing. Cristina stayed behind with the twins. As she waited for their arrival she paced nervously back and forth in her living room. Ethan and Evan watched their mother as they sat back comfortably in their bouncers. Cristina always dreaded the unwanted visits from her mother and felt she needed to give pep talks to her babies.

"Okay, first things first," she said gesturing with her hands, "aside from swooning over your amazingly good looks, ignore everything Grandma Rubenstein has to say. Let all her frivolous ideas for you two go in one ear and out the other."

When she finished her team talk, she took Ethan and Evan's little oo's and coo's as a sign that they understood.

The familiar sound of Owen's engine made her halt and take a seat on the sofa in front of her sons. "Brace yourselves. Grandma Rubenstein has arrived," she said as she straightened out their matching short-overall outfits.

Mrs. Rubenstein gracefully waltzed up the walkway to the front door and lightly knocked. Cristina rose and opened the door, revealing her formally dressed mother.

"Mother," Cristina simply said.

"Cristina," her mother acknowledged as she brushed past her in the direction of Ethan and Evan.

As Mrs. Rubenstein began swooning over Ethan and Evan's outfits and incredibly adorable looks Cristina held the door open for Owen, who was hauling her mother's Louis Vuitton luggage.

Cristina merely sighed, and as Owen brushed past her whispered, "Be _nice_." He went to set down her bags in the guest bedroom. _Great she's staying here_, Cristina thought as she exhaled with force.

Cristina joined her mother in the living room, sitting on the love seat adjacent from her mother.

"Oh my goodness," Mrs. Rubenstein said while caressing each of the twins faces, "I have the world's most adorable grandchildren." As Owen joined Cristina on the love seat she continued. "You know Owen it's a good thing they have your lovely feathered auburn hair, opposed to Cristina's wild untamable hair. It was quite the mission brushing it as a child. Save for you and these twins."

Owen lightly rubbed Cristina's back, whose lips were pursed together in attempts to not fire back a snide remark.

Mrs. Rubenstein ignored her expression and turned her attention back to Ethan and Evan.

"Now, grandma comes up bearing presents." She reached down into a bag she brought in with her, revealing four outfits. Four very preppy and pastel colored outfits that made Cristina cringe, and make a face in disgust. Owen nudged Cristina to fix her facial expression before her mother asked, "Aren't they lovely? They need a splash of Beverly-Hills fashion in their wardrobe."

"Oh yes, adorable Mrs. Rubenstein. Thank You." Owen said with a forced smile before Cristina could express how she really felt about them.

The back and forth chit-chat continued into the early afternoon, and Owen politely excused himself to start making lunch, leaving Cristina and her mother alone with the twins.

"Cristina, does he always do the cooking? Would it kill you to learn a few recipes and give him a break from the kitchen?"

"What?" A baffled Cristina said. Everyone including her mother knew she did not cook.

"It's about time you learn to cook. You have children now; they need to have healthy meals prepared for them when they're bigger. When Owen is not around you need to be able to prepare them. They cannot live off of Chinese take out like you."

"I know how to make a very healthy sandwich, thank you very much." Cristina said in defense.

"Hmph! All you know how to do is dial the numbers to your favorite take out restaurants."

Cristina rolled her eyes, "It's good enough for me. And Ethan and Evan look like they'll love sandwiches."

Mrs. Rubenstein simply shook her head before admiring her grandchildren, "Oh my Ethan and Evan you have beautiful hands to be pianists, or artists who paint lovely murals."

"_Or_ talented rock star surgeons," Cristina interrupted. Her mother shook her head as to say "as if!"

Before they could continue with their 'commiserating' Owen interrupted with news that lunch was ready. Owen and Cristina laid a sleepy Ethan and Evan in their bassinets and joined Mrs. Rubenstein at their kitchen table.

"Owen," Mrs. Rubenstein said as she tasted some lemon pepper chicken, "this is delicious."

"Thank you," he said as him and Cristina took a seat.

"Owen you really should make Cristina learn to cook."

"Mother, will you leave the cooking alone."

"No, it's about time you started learning how to do things around the house. Now that you'll be staying home with the children you need to learn."

"Staying home? I fully intend on going back to work and soon," Cristina exclaimed as she popped a fork full of chicken in her mouth.

"Oh please don't tell me you plan on raising your children in a hospital," Mrs. Rubenstein turned to Owen," Please do tell her a hospital is no place for children."

Owen quickly shoved chicken and rice inside his mouth before muttering out his response, "The hospital has great day care. I think the kids will be just fine." And he quickly placed his eyes back to his plate.

"Very well, but it wouldn't kill you to become a little more of a domesticated housewife."

Taking her own advice she gave to Ethan and Evan, Cristina let the remaining conversation with her mother flow in one ear and out the other.

By the end of the day Owen had Cristina agreeing to let her mother decorate the nursery, and join her on a day of shopping tomorrow afternoon. He truly wished and hoped Cristina and her mother would come to tolerate each other's views.

- - - - - - - - -

It was Sunday afternoon and Cristina found herself in an elegant and expensive shop oozing with cuteness. Her mother was excited with the vast variety the store offered, giving her so many options to decorate the nursery.

"Ah, they have a lovely collection of paints," Mrs. Rubenstein said as she rummaged through pallets of colors, "What do you think of this shade of periwinkle?"

Cristina crinkled her nose in disgust, "That's an awful shade of blue."

"Cristina this is a lovely pastel indigo." Cristina merely shook her head in disgust as she sat down on a small chair facing Ethan and Evan who were fast asleep in their strollers.

"Fine," she said as she sifted in search of another color. "Hmm. How about this cream cheese or custard color? I think they're quite lovely. What do you think?"

"Seriously? Yellow? What boys do you know have a yellow room?"

"It's not yellow. This is cream cheese and this is custard. I'm leaning towards the custard."

"I see yellow mother."

"Oh Cristina, will you just work with me here." She said as she gathered a sample of animal border, and yellow and white stripped wallpaper. "I think this ties in together lovely."

Not wanting to argue Cristina agreed. She had only been in the store 20 minutes, which was twenty minutes too long. After all she could always change the nursery once her mother left.

When they arrived back home they were greeted with a note from Owen, stating the hospital needed him on an emergent surgery. It made Cristina jealous. It made her yearn to be back into the hospital. Rather than mope about it, she turned to Ethan and Evan to cheer her up, and her mother spent the remainder of visit getting to know her grandchildren.

Owen made it home 3 hours before Mrs. Rubenstein had to be at the airport. He waltzed into the living room to find Evan sleeping in Cristina's arms and her mother burping Ethan. He softly kissed each of his sons' heads before lightly brushing lips with his wife's.

As he nestled comfortable next to Cristina Mrs. Rubenstein took the opportunity to brief the both of them on specifics she wanted done to the nursery. Their only responses were nods of the head done in unison.

When the time came for Mrs. Rubenstein to leave, she held each of her grandchildren for a long time. Whispering to them in their sleeps, telling them of how she'll return soon, and tenderly kissing their foreheads. As she finished her goodbyes with Ethan and Evan she averted her attention to Cristina.

"Here," Mrs. Rubenstein said as she handed Cristina a shopping bag.

She opened it and pulled out its contents. She expected it to be another pair of preppy-goody-too-shoes outfits, but it was something else, something better, something that made Cristina fight back a smile.

"Thank you," Cristina said, as she admired the sets of baby size navy blue scrubs for Ethan and Evan.

"Take care of my grandchildren, and I expect to see that nursery finished by the time I return."

Cristina, still admiring the matching scrub outfits, "Of course mother. And have a save flight home." Mrs. Rubenstein nodded and gently brushed Cristina's curls behind her ear and said goodbye.

That night, Cristina fell asleep in Owen's arms thinking that the custard color for the nursery wasn't all that bad. After all she once read that those of high intellect were attracted to the color yellow. _Very fitting for Ethan and Evan_, she thought before drifting off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

"I want to go back to work Owen," Cristina argued as she changed Ethan's wet diaper. It was 5:30am and the twins were wide awake, pouting right along with their mother, only they were pleading to be fed.

"Cristina, at least give it a full month," Owen begged as he slipped on a dark grey t-shirt and went to the kitchen to warm the babies' bottles. He needed to leave soon, his shift started in thirty minutes.

"Where the hell is George?" He said annoyed, as he handed one bottle to Cristina, and picked up Evan and began feeding him. Today was George's day off and was more than happy to help out with the little hunts. He was the type of kind-hearted person you were honored to have as a friend.

Cristina ignored his question, "A month is too long. I need to go back to work a lot sooner, like now."

Owen sighed, "Cristina, stop fighting me on this. I know you're eager to get back in the OR, but the babies are too small to be carting around the hospital."

"Bailey was carting around little Tuck shortly after he was born."

"If my mind serves me correct Bailey only has one son, so she only had one baby to look after," Owen countered as he started to burp Evan, "we have _two_."

"Meredith offered to help out, as did the rest of my friends," Cristina said as she lightly patted Ethan's back, "_And_ the nurses love you, they won't turn down a chance to baby sit a mini version of you while we kick a- I mean butt in the OR."

Owen shook his head, "Cristina, the hospital will still be there. Relax."

She rolled her eyes. "You're just saying that because you get to into work today."

"Cristina, I would much rather stay here with my family, but I have a Trauma to run. It's always busy, non-stop flowing with injured patients. Even though I took two weeks off, I still was paged numerous times."

"Well I have a Cardio wing to run –"

"Which has been slow since the hospital has not called you," Owen said cutting her off.

Before Cristina could get another word in their doorbell rang. Owen quickly left their bedroom with Evan in his arms to answer. It was George.

"Sorry I'm a little late, but I stopped and grabbed some breakfast and coffee," George said apologetically as he entered the Hunt household and placed his food on kitchen counter.

"It's all right. Thanks again George, I really appreciate this."

Owen gently caressed Evan in his arms and kissed him several times on the cheek and forehead before handing him off to George. "I'll miss you buddy," he whispered before returning to his bedroom.

"Okay, I'm off to the hospital," Owen told Cristina as he slipped on his jacket and grabbed his keys from the nightstand.

"Mmhmm," Was simply her answer. Owen kissed his upset wife goodbye along with Ethan and whispered "I love you's" to them, and he left reluctantly. When Owen was gone, Cristina attempted to put Ethan back to sleep, but failed and he soon started crying softly. As she checked his diaper, his cries increased in volume, so she quickly picked him up, lightly bouncing while she cradled him. She did this for about ten minutes, making several "shh shh" sounds. Finally George came into her bedroom with a quiet, cool, calm Evan.

"Geez Cristina what are you doing to the poor kid?" he said as he gently lay Evan in his bassinet.

"Oh can it George, I'm trying here," She said annoyed. "Not everyone can have the Disney affect on kids."

George shook his head in amusement and took over baby duty for Ethan, "Come here little guy."

Ethan immediately stopped crying in George's arms. Cristina was always jealous that he had that affect on babies, but she would never admit it to him. It was like George had a special connection with every baby, an unfathomable bond that even parents did not share. He was like a Disney character all babies felt safe with.

As Cristina watched, she briefly wondered if Ethan's crying was triggered by the frustrated emotions of going back to work. She once read babies could sense things stirring up in their parents. It made her feel a little guilty for wanted to go back to work, but she could not help it. What bothered her most was Owen countered her mother when she said a hospital was no place to raise children. Now here he was saying they were too small. He was the one that was supposed to understand her, especially about this. Cristina started to become frustrated and George noticed.

"No wonder this little guy was crying," George said, displacing Cristina from her thoughts. "He's upset because his mommy is upset."

Cristina sighed, "How is my Cardio wing?"

"Izzie is doing a great job," George assured her. "It's been slow anyway, you're not missing out on anything."

"Only I can do a great job running the Cardio wing, Izzie must doing an okay job."

"Whatever you say."

Throughout the whole day Cristina remained frustrated, and her twins could feel it, because they remained fussy throughout the day as well. It was as though if mommy was not happy, neither are we. George certainly had his hands full today, luckily he was able to calm them with ease, but Ethan and Evan's short length naps took a toll on him. Even though he was great with babies and children, he was happy he never had any. One baby was double duty all on its own, but two babies definitely took its toll on you by mid day.

Owen arrived home two hours late. He quickly exited his truck, eager to see Ethan and Evan. When he walked through the front door he found George swaddling an already asleep Ethan, preparing him to be placed in his bassinet. Before he could apologize for being late and thanking him, George motioned to Cristina's bedroom where little whimpers were escaping Evan's tiny mouth.

When Owen walked into his bedroom he found Cristina sitting up in bed trying to rock Evan to sleep, but he was putting up quite the fight. Owen also noticed that the expression on Cristina's face had not changed from this morning.

Cristina got up from the bed with their son and gently handed him to Owen. "Your turn," she said in a flat tone.

Owen eyed Cristina, her hair was frazzled, and she looked exhausted and pissed off. Her shirt had milk stains from Ethan and Evan missing the burp cloth when they spit up. She smelled of awful baby formula mixed with baby powder. It had been a rough day for her. He leaned in to kiss her forehead but she stepped back.

Owen sighed, "I know you're still upset about the conversation from this morning, but the babies really are too small to be carrying them around in a hospital for 12 hours. Cristina, this is what you signed up for when you said you wanted to have a baby."

"When I said I wanted a baby, and you complied, that means you signed up too. So you should be home as well. If I'm here, then you should be too, especially since we had twins. You shouldn't be the only one who gets to go back to work. I shouldn't have to remain home just because I pushed the babies out. If you're at work, then we (including Ethan and Evan) should be able to be there too."

Before Owen could counter, she walked away to the bathroom in need of relaxing that only a hot bath could provide.

Owen left the bedroom and joined George in the living room, to try to calm and comfort Evan.

"George, thanks a lot for coming over today, we really appreciate it."

"No problem, "George whispered as he went to place Ethan to bed.

George emerged from their bedroom, gathered his things and headed for the door. Before he walked out he turned in Owen's direction. In a low voice, he whispered,"Cristina is tough. She's strong enough to handle the work force and babies at the same time."

Owen nodded and gave him a weak smile.

It took 45 minutes before Evan was finally down for the night. Owen got up from the sofa, locked the front door and went to place his son down beside Ethan.

Cristina was already in a deep sleep. He discarded his clothes, only leaving his boxers and climbed into bed. He noticed that Cristina was not in her usual spot, the middle where they always cuddled. For the first time in years he went to sleep without his arms wrapped tightly around Cristina.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: I just wanted to give a special thank you to those who have reviewed my story. Reviews make me happy and you all are awesome, thanks and I hope you continue to. :)_

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Owen never enjoyed arguing with anyone, especially his wife. Friends and family of Cristina Yang knew that once you were on her bad side you had one hell of a hole to climb out of, heck, even acquaintances and people who knew of her knew better. She possessed a deadly wrath that no one dared to ever get near, and those who did regretted it instantly. However, in this particular instance Cristina did not unleash her angry caustic words towards her husband, or give him intense glares that could burn a hole through someone's face. No. She simply gave him the silent treatment, and if she allowed words to escape her mouth they simply consisted of "yes" "no" and "it's over there". Conversation was spent on Ethan and Evan. It frustrated Owen but he knew she was still upset, and thought it would eventually subside. Little did he know she wanted her words from the other night to marinate in his brain and for him to grasp what she was saying.

Unfortunately, most men, even the near perfect ones are slow with interpreting everything. Owen heard her words, briefly took them into consideration, but in the end went back to his conclusion. He felt Ethan and Evan were too little to be carried around in a baby sling for a lengthy twelve hours shift. As far as returning to work it wasn't a matter of gender on who would stay home, that was simply coincidence, in Owen's mind his department demanded him to be there - Trauma was constantly filled with patients who needed to be rushed to the OR immediately and 90 percent of the time he needed to perform or assist in those surgeries. Cristina's cardio surgeries were typically scheduled, occasionally she was needed in an emergent Trauma case but it was rare, and Stevens was doing a fantastic job of performing the light duties that were currently gracing the Cardio department. Owen saw it as fortunate time for Cristina. In his mind it allowed her to spend that quality time he longed for without his Trauma cases getting in the way. He did not understand why she wanted to spoil this time with Ethan and Evan with medicine.

It was 2:45 in the morning and Owen gently lay Evan down to sleep. Cristina showed off her mommy skills by changing Ethan's diaper in record time and calming and putting him back to sleep with no difficulty. Owen was envious of her and how quickly she was catching on. Rather than return to bed, he sat back in a chair propping up his feet on the ottoman, watching his little ones with admiration as they slept peacefully. Eventually Owen dozed off on the chair but was awakened by a swift kick knocking his legs off the ottoman. His eyes jerked open.

"Its 5:30," Cristina said as she was holding a wide awake Evan. "Alex is already here, you can leave."

Owen did not bother responding and quickly dressed and kissed his son's goodbye.

"Thank you Alex," Owen said as he walked out the front door before Alex could respond.

"Whoa tension between mommy and daddy," Alex said with laughter to Ethan.

"Shut up Alex," as she joined him on the couch.

"So what's his problem and your problem?" Alex always did enjoy gossip.

"I'm ready to go back to work and he doesn't think so, but I do. I'm more than ready to go to work with Ethan and Evan. Bailey did it, and me and him can do too. It pisses me off that he wants to wait when I know both of us are more than capable." Cristina ranted.

"He's a Trauma surgeon Yang. He can't have a kid hanging around his chest while an injured patient comes into the ER. It's easier to wait until they're big enough to be in the hospital's day care. That's why Izzie waited. It was easier for the both of us. I get what Hunt is saying. We're trauma surgeons Yang."

"I knew Owen's cheerleader would side with him," Cristina said shaking her head. "And not that it would have helped, but if Izzie didn't stay home for those three months then she might have actually gave me a run for my money for Head of Cardio."

Instead of countering the cheerleader comment Alex simply spoke of all the heart surgeries she was missing out on. What an ass, she thought, and he had to go into specific detail.

- - - - - - - - - -

"How are those gorgeous babies doing Hunt?" Bailey asked as they were both scrubbing out of surgery.

"They're doing great, thank you for asking Dr. Bailey," He answered flatly keeping his eyes fixed ahead.

"Uh huh, then why the long face?" She pried. "Problems with Cristina?" His silence told her everything. "Let me guess, she's ready to come back to work with those babies in her arms and you don't want that."

Owen sighed. He dried his hands and leaned against the sterile sink. "She says that it's not fair that I returned to work and she can't. She says that if I'm home I should be, and if I'm at work then her and the babies should be able to be too."

"And what's the problem?" Bailey asked.

"Well for one they're too small, and I had to come back to work. I'm a Trauma surgeon Dr. Bailey."

"I brought my baby to work, and Cristina was kindly enough to baby sit for me when I was needed in the OR. I would gladly do the same."

Unbelievable, Hunt thought. Women sure do stick together. "Well you had one baby, we have two to look after."

"Well then it's a good thing there's two of you and you both are surgeons who happen to work at the same hospital."

"Baile-"

"Ahh Ahh shh! Look, in this situation you both are blessed to be surgeons who work in the same hospital. I would have loved if big Tucker worked in this hospital. It would have meant more family time, more time with my husband and baby, and still be an amazing surgeon. It would have been the best of both worlds. But he's not and being away from home and always leaving him with the baby forced us to separate not too long ago. It tore our marriage apart. We barely came out on top by the skin of our teeth. So take a page from book."

Owen simply gave Bailey a smile. She was good. Dr. Bailey always knew what to say and gave the greatest advice.

"Besides we are talking about Cristina, she is not a housewife, never will be, not even a temporary one. So go home and fix whatever is going on." Bailey said shaking her head at these youngsters nowadays.

Owen wanted to leave his shift an hour early but refrained. Alex, the next best trauma surgeon he felt comfortable leaving with was at his house, so he waited. During the next hour he thought of numerous things to get Cristina smiling again. With the advice Bailey gave him he had an idea. Before he left for the day he went in and had a talk with the Chief.


	8. Chapter 8

Cristina inhaled deeply, enjoying the crisp light breeze that whirled its way through her thick curly hair as she pushed Evan's stroller. As she exhaled she appreciated the uncommon clear sky that graced Seattle today and was happy when Alex agreed a walk around the neighborhood with the twins would do them all some good. Alex noticed the rare serenity that was displayed upon Cristina's face so he remained quite as he pushed Ethan's stroller alongside Evan's. It felt good to be out of the house, to breathe in fresh air, and receive some sunlight because Cristina was beginning to feel cooped up at her house and she felt her twins were beginning to feel the same. As their walk continued Cristina's expression changed, Alex took notice but refrained from making any comments or asking any prying questions. Cristina was indeed thinking intently. It bothered her that there was a temporary rift within her marriage, a problem that in her mind could be fixed so easily if Owen would really open his eyes or brain and actually fathom the words she last spoke to him. Delving deeper into her thoughts she remembered how horrible men were with grasping concepts and decided tonight she would remind him; she was more than ready for work with Ethan and Evan by her side. When the winds started to pick up and the clears sky slowly started dissipating into a light shade of grey they headed home. Unbeknownst to the time when they were nearing Cristina's house Owen had just pulled into the driveway. He exited his truck and started walking in the direction of Cristina and Alex making her sigh.

Before Owen completely reached them Alex muttered a few words, "Hang in there Yang. It gets easier."

Alex's words surprised Cristina and gave him a faint smile.

"Alex, thank you again. You'll never know how much I really appreciate this," Owen said as he took the handles of Ethan's stroller.

"No problem," Alex said as he searched his pockets for his keys. "Just when you're ready to resign as Head of Trauma make sure you put in a good word for me to take your place."

Owen chuckled, "I'll remember that."

"Okay, I gotta go pick up my team of wrestlers from school. Catch ya later," Alex said as he waved and walked off to his car.

The short stroll up the walk way was a silent one. Inside Cristina changed the diapers of both Ethan and Evan while Owen warmed their bottles. No words were spoken yet, not even a hello. After the twins' feedings they quickly went to sleep and Owen went into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Cristina took this opportunity to shower and change into comfortable clothes. She planned on discussing work with Owen again after dinner.

When Cristina entered the living room from a rather lengthy hot shower her eyebrows were raised in surprise and tried to stop her lips from forming a smile. Owen served dinner on their low coffee table and placed pillows on the floor as their seats. In one hand he held two wine glasses and in the other her favorite bordo wine.

"Surf and turf," Cristina said, at last letting her smile form. A tender juicy steak served with shrimp was waiting on a plate for her. It was her favorite dish of Owen's.

"Yeah," Owen said as he filled one glass with wine and handed it to Cristina. He placed the other and the bottle on the coffee table and tenderly pressed his lips to hers. This time she did not remain unresponsive, and turned the kiss into a passionate one. Even though it had not been long, she already missed kissing him. When their lips finally parted Owen spoke.

"I'm sorry. Sorry for not being understanding. You are right; if you're taking care of the kids then I should be too, whether it is at home or at work. I'm sorry," Owen said biting his bottom lip, unsure of the reaction he was going to get from Cristina.

"It's about time you came to your senses," she said as she plopped down in front her delicious meal and began cutting into her medium rare steak; just the way she liked it. "And since you doubted my abilities to handle the task of working and taking care of our sons you can give me a massage later."

Owen joined Cristina on the floor and gave loving smile. "Well, since you're ready I spoke to the Chief already and let him know you'll be returning tomorrow morning."

Those words only improved the night for Cristina, bringing a full bright smile to her face. At last, she thought, her understanding hubby was back. They ate, drank wine, and each sharing stories; Cristina filling in Owen about Ethan and Evan and the particular ways they liked being held. Owen shared details of recent surgeries that Cristina loved to hear about and how her Cardio department was awaiting her.

By the end of the night while they were snuggling in bed Owen brought up one more thing.

"I'm still skeptical about taking the twins for work." Cristina sighed as he began. "So, I spoke to the Chief and I'm taking another week off while you work, and then when my week is up we'll all go to work together. Fair enough for you?"

"Sounds like a plan." Cristina said as she began to think of how Owen was going to go through the same things she did.

When all lights were out in the Hunt household, and Owen was back to his regular routine of holding Cristina tightly as he fell asleep, Cristina hoped she fall asleep with vast speed. She anxiously waited for the early morning to come. She was simply eager to go back to work.

- - - - - - - - -

Cristina woke up two hours before her shift and an hour before Ethan and Evan. She quietly climbed out of bed and tip-toed into the closet to retrieve her navy blue scrubs and SGH hospital badge. After gathering the necessary items for work, she sat back on the chair next to Ethan and Evan's bassinet and watched them until it was time to go.

It was thirty-minutes before Cristina had to leave and from the looks of it the twins decided to sleep in this morning. She lightly nudged Owen to let him know she had to leave.

"Hey," she whispered, "I need to get going. Who is coming over today? They need to get here now."

Owen lifted his head but his eyes remained closed. "Nobody is coming. I can handle the both of them. You can go Cristina, I love you." He said in his rough morning voice.

His words amused Cristina. _Rooki_e, she thought. "Okay, good luck with that. Love you and I'll see my favorite boys tonight." She kissed Owen and her twins and went off to the hospital.

When Cristina walked into the hospital of SGH she was elated. The familiar sterile smell brought a smile to her face; it had been too long for her. The nurses over the loud speaker paging Dr's to patient rooms or OR's was like music to her ears. It was quite the rush to be back at work and she loved it. She quickly caught an elevator and rode it to her beloved Cardio Department where she changed in her office. After changing into her navy blue scrubs she immediately started going over all that she had missed and what was currently present.

It did not take Cristina long to start rescheduling surgeries, visiting patients, and changing treatment plans that she felt would better the patient. As she was doing all of that she briefly thought that Owen was such a dunce to think Cardio had slowed down. It was busy as usual, just as it was when she left it. He probably told them to not page her no matter what, that Izzie could handle it. That thought made her snort. In Cristina's mind a consult from her was one of the absolute's best.

An hour into her shift Cristina found herself in the OR performing a valve replacement. Feeling the scalpel in her hand instantly invigorated her, and as she proceeded to press it against skin it only intensified. The familiar sound of the saw and cracking of the chest was all too exciting for her. Some of the scrub nurses momentarily thought Cristina would be a little rusty, but she executed the surgery immaculately. It was like riding a bike for Cristina, she would never forget.

By lunch time Cristina had performed three surgeries; one valve replacement, repairing the aorta from an aortic aneurysm and one coronary angioplasty. Operating on hearts gave her an amazing high and it was days like this, filled with non-stop surgeries that made her love being at work. After she grabbed a cup of coffee and spinach salad she flipped open her phone to check on Owen and her twins; Ethan and Evan.

The phone rang four times before Owen answered, but he fumbled the phone before placing it to his ear.

"Ehh…Hello?" Owen said through the loud cries of Ethan and Evan.

"Sheesh! What are you doing to my precious boys?"

"Nothing, they are just fussy I guess."

"Do you want to me ask Alex to go give you a hand?" Cristina asked as she sipped her coffee.

"NO. Karev is the only Trauma surgeon I trust to run that department, so no. I'm doing alright Cristina. Babies cry, they're just crying nothings wrong. I'm dealing."

Cristina chuckled, "I can tell. Well give them my love and kisses. Oh and just in case you do need a little help Ethan likes to be comforted by being cradled in the arms and Evan likes to be upright propped up against the shoulder while rubbing his back. But you obviously cannot carry both of them so read them page 122 in my surgical syndromes book. It always calms them."

"Seriously?" Owen asked through the cries of his twins.

"Yes, now get to it before they really let you have it." Cristina ordered.

"Okay got it. I gotta go love you." Owen said and hung up quickly.

Owen was having a difficult time handing Ethan and Evan. It made him give Cristina a lot more credit and praise than he originally had done. He did need help, but refused to ask for it. Maybe it was the proud factor of a man or his old soldier demeanor of not needing help, either way he decided he would take care of his own children. He was grateful for the tips Cristina had just given him because he immediately started reading the exact page from her medical book aloud and sure enough, as odd as it seemed to him, their cries started to become softer and eventually stopped. _Amazing_ he thought.

Meanwhile, Cristina had just finished her coffee and salad when an annoyed Izzie stormed up to her.

"Why did you change Mrs. Duncan's course of treatment?" Izzie demanded to know. "I diagnosed it fine. There was no need to change it Cristina."

Cristina shook her head and could not believe she was forced to leave her beloved Cardio in the hands of Izzie.

"Iz, my treatment plan will improve her quality of life. It's better."

"Ugh, fine," Izzie said in frustration. "Well, I'm performing it."

Cristina laughed, "Izzie, I'm Head of Cardio. _Recognize_." And walked off to scrub in and perform Mrs. Duncan's heart surgery, leaving Izzie exasperated.

Cristina had one hell of a day at work. In the corny words of O'Malley she was strung out on the scalpel and loving high of performing surgeries, over looking scans of hearts, everything. What made the day even better was that no one died on her watch. But it was the end of her shift as she was changing into her civilian clothes when something hit her. Through the great and familiar moments of work today, something was missing. It was Ethan and Evan. The smell of baby powder, formula, dirty diapers were replaced with cleanliness, and formaldehyde. Cristina wanted the smell of both things. She wanted the best of both worlds; being a surgeon and having her babies right there every step of the way.

When Cristina arrived home Ethan and Evan were fast asleep and Owen was passed out on the sofa chair in their bedroom. His hair was beyond frazzled but insanely curly from the rough day at home he had. He had the familiar stains of spit up and milk. He smelled of wet diapers, baby powder and formula. Cristina smiled, and snaked her way into Owen's arms and fell asleep right along with her boys. Tomorrow she would try and convince Owen that neither of them needed to take time off of work.

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_A/N: Again, thank you so much for the reviews. Keep them coming, please. :) Enjoy. Oh and also, expect a time jump with the next chapter(s).  
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	9. Chapter 9

_a/n: I had planned on having two chapters by today but I just could not stop writing with this chapter so it runs a little long and the time jump with happen in the next chapter. __I have not gotten a chance to proof read it so if there are any mistakes let me know.__ Anyhow, I hope you read and enjoy this long chapter. __Remember reviews are love. __Take care and a special thank to all those who have reviewed my story. :)_

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Cristina did her best to try and convince Owen that they were both ready to be at work with Ethan and Evan. She argued, saying that a week from now they would still be the same, so why not return the next day. Owen being his stubborn self and a protective father did not budge. It bothered Cristina but she knew no matter how much she argued or pried that he would not give in, this time she would have to wait it out. With that, Cristina's second day back was not so exciting. The typical busy Cardio department filled with patients suffering from various different and complex heart troubles did not stimulate her today. The diagnoses, treatment plans, and surgeries did not have the same side effect as yesterday. Today she had hopes that her twins would be watching her perform surgery from the OR gallery, or that when she was finished Ethan and Evan would be waiting for her outside of the scrub room. Last night she made plans that any free time she got would be spent with her little hunts, but this morning those plans were crushed, and today when she was not busy it was spent doing research. It had to be the first time in years where Cristina was not fully enthralled by medicine.

Owen remained home with Ethan and Evan, still refusing the help of their friends. Taking care of twins alone proved to be quite the challenge for Owen. It was more difficult than some surgeries he encountered. Two crying babies and one person to comfort them was no easy task and Owen quickly found that out. At one point he managed to cradle each twin in his arms but it took a lengthy time in trying to set one down while keeping the other safely secure in the other. Feedings were not too much trouble, thanks to the feeding pillows that supported the twins and their bottles. Burping Ethan and Evan posed to be another. He did his best to hurry and burp one, so can get to the other, but it always ended with one of them throwing up on themselves or him. He quickly learned that bathing them together was impossible. He attempted it yesterday, and knew better to try it again today, for it ended in a concert of crying. Comforting Ethan and Evan was quite the workout. Even though he was well fit, and masculine, these twins put up good fights and are resilient. When each twin wanted to be held, bounced, or cuddled with he had to place one in their bouncer and bounce it with his foot, while he cradled the other in his arms gently swaying from side to side. By the end of the day Owen knew he could not continue like this. He was trying to take on too much. Two babies at least needed two people to watch them, well at this age anyway.

When Ethan and Evan were finally down for their lengthy sleep through the night Owen collapsed on his plush king size bed, allowing the mattress and fluffy covers and pillows to comfort him. Although he was beyond comfortable lying there, he did not allow his eyes to shut and drift asleep. He wanted to wait for Cristina to get home so that he would be able to take a shower. His body was exhausted, his forehead felt sort of ashy from sweat that had dried from earlier in the day and as always it was accompanied by the awful milk smell from being spit up on. Even though he was positive Ethan and Evan would not wake up for another five hours he did not feel comfortable jumping in the shower, leaving them unattended. It was always just in case with Owen, so he lied there awake waiting for Cristina.

Owen's eyes jerked open and his hand raced for the phone before it could wake the twins. He drifted off to sleep after all.

"Hello…" he said in a rugged voice.

"Hey, its me," Cristina began through the phone, "a crash victim with a shard of glass in the heart just rolled into the trauma room, I'm gonna be home late."

Owen sighed; he really wanted that hot shower. "Alright," he said in a frustrated tone.

"I'm sorry Owen –"

"Its fine. I'll see you when you get home." Owen said quickly and placed the phone down on the receiver. He was jealous but little did he know Cristina was not excited for this surgery, she longed to be home with her family. Before he returned his head to his pillow he picked up the phone again and dialed.

"O'Malley, sorry to call so late but you got time to come and help me out with my little ones tomorrow?"

"Yeah, no problem." George managed to mumbled, still half asleep.

"Thanks, see you tomorrow morning." And Owen returned to snoozing immediately.

A few hours later, Owen's eyes were jerked open once again, this time by arms being snaked around his abdomen. Cristina made it home around 2 am.

"Hey," she said softly as her grip around him tightened. Owen rolled over on his other side to face Cristina. He missed her and pressed his lips to hers.

"Hey," he said as their lips parted ways. "We missed you today."

"I missed you guys too." With that their lips met once more, this time for a lengthy passionate kiss. When the kissing settled, they embraced, holding on to each other tightly.

"Ugh, you need to shower," Cristina said as she stopped herself from completely nuzzling in the crook of Owen's neck.

Chuckling, "I know, but you took forever to come home."

"Well take one now. You smell really bad," Cristina said crinkling her nose in disgust.

"Ahh, alright," Owen agreed as he sluggishly made his way off the bed and turned on the lamp to gather some clean clothes.

"Oh my god," Cristina said in shock, "your hair."

Owen looked puzzled. "What?"

"Look at your hair. It's like you've been electrocuted." Now laughing, "You must have had a tough day."

Owen looked at himself in the mirror and turned away. He removed his shirt and threw it at Cristina. "Shut it."

George arrived just as the sun was beginning to come up. He looked tired but he could never tell anybody no when they needed help and once again Cristina reluctantly left the house wishing her twins and Owen were coming along too.

As usual she operated mechanically at work. A piece of her was missing, that piece was her family, and through her work day and the rest of the Owen's week off she anxiously awaited the day she would bring Ethan and Evan to work.

Owen had an easier time with the twins at home, with the help of George, and Meredith, Izzie, Derek, and Alex to follow. A second set of hands definitely helped, and he got to shower during the day when they were not in fussy or upset moods. Ethan and Evan got to bathe, be comforted and burped at the same time. Owen appreciated the second set of hands and arms. When he was doing it on his own, he always felt bad having to neglect one of his son's momentarily in diaper changes or burping them, or having to choose one to cradle in his arms while the other had to be subjected to a bouncer being bounced by his foot. It made him feel silly for having been so stubborn in asking for help, when clearly his sons were benefiting from it.

To Owen's dismay but to Cristina's delight, the day finally came where Ethan and Evan would be going to work with their parents. They both found themselves packing diaper bags consisting of extra clothes, diapers, bottles, formula, wipes, baby powder, thermometers, acetaminophen, burp clothes, and blankets. Of course they both made certain they did not forget the crucial baby slings. When they were all packed up and ready to go to work, Cristina carried the bags to the car, while Owen carried both Ethan and Evan safely secured them in the backseat. Owen drove the approximate speed limit the whole way to the hospital, it frustrated Cristina but she bit her tongue.

Once Owen parked the car and turned off the ignition, Cristina unbuckled her seat belt and quickly exited the car to retrieve one of her sons from the backseat. She was excited. When Cristina comfortably placed a sleeping Evan in her sling, Owen did the same with Ethan.

"Okay, let's go see if there's any room for these guys in day care."

Cristina raised one eye brow, "What?"

"Day care. It fills up quick. Let's go see if there's any room for our guys."

Cristina pleaded. "I don't want to leave them in day care. We can handle taking of them during our shifts. Please Owen I've been waiting for this."

Not able to resist Cristina's plea, he agreed and they both made a date in the cafeteria at lunch to switch off with the twins. As they both entered the hospital the twins received a roar "aww's" in unison as they each showed off their sons. After the nurses and staff enjoyed the cute fest, Cristina kissed Owen and Ethan goodbye and went off in the direction of her Cardio department. Owen then went off into the ER.

Cristina's morning started off fairly easy with Evan. There were no emergent surgeries to be performed. The surgeries she did have for today were scheduled for after lunch. When she rounded on patients Evan was right there with her being a good little boy as he listened to Cristina explain what was wrong and the course of treatment she would be following later in the day or in days to follow. During a brief moment of free time she gave Evan a diaper change and began one of several feedings for the day. She even read aloud and shared some of the research and small discoveries she has made with him. Everything seemed to be going perfect and Cristina thought how silly Owen was being about having to carrying around babies for such lengthy hours. It was great, at least until her pager went off reading emergency. She was being paged down to the ER. Cristina quickly shut off her computer, and speed walked to the ER.

Owen's morning started off just as Cristina's did, rather simple with Ethan. While he got up to speed with recent patients Ethan remained quite, as if he were listening intently and understanding all the medical terms. Owen had a two surgeries scheduled, one with Mark, and one with Callie, but both were happening after lunch. After assigning Alex and George, he took a moment to change and feed Ethan in his office. While lightly patting Ethan's back to produce a burp he began reconstructing the trauma schedule, reassigning certain residents. When he was finished he swung Ethan diaper bag over his other shoulder and began rounding on postoperative patients, bringing them up to speed on the surgery they were going to be having today or within the days to follow. As he finished up and about to take a seat in the office behind the nurses' station his pager went off reading 9-1-1. Great he thought. Just as he predicted, here is where the difficulty of carrying a child around the hospital would interfere, and he lightly and carefully jogged to the outside ambulance bay leading to the ER.

On his way he bumped into Cristina and Evan. "Cristina, after we see what's wrong with this patient you need to page two of our friends quick."

"I know. I'm ready Owen. I'll page Meredith and George as soon as we asses what's wrong."

Owen shook his head, "George is in surgery. So is Alex."

"Don't worry Owen, I'll page someone else. Sheesh, calm down."

As they neared closer to the doors outside the sirens became louder, causing Evan to erupt in frightful cries from the loud noises. It did not take long for Ethan to follow suit. Cristina and Owen did their best to talk them down and try to comfort them as the ambulance doors swung open. When Owen saw the extent of the man's injuries he immediate gave Ethan to Lexie, along with his diaper bag. He instructed her to check with the hospital's day care to see if they were not full and if they were to watch him from the OR gallery. He did not care if Cristina did not want their sons in daycare, in Owen's mind they needed to be there, this surgery was going to take hours. He could already tell as his eyes were fixated on the long pole going through the man's body. It was inserted through the top half of his back and exiting through his lower abdomen. Cristina was just as shocked that Owen's instructions to Lexie and day care were not audible to her. She immediately instructed Graciela to book an OR. As Owen, the patient and Graciela rushed the patient inside; Cristina rushed to the nearest phone to page Meredith.

When she got no response she assumed Meredith was in surgery. She then went to the OR board to check to see who was not in surgery and to her luck, everybody she knew was. Perfect, she thought. Cristina was in dire need of a baby sitter and stat. With no other options she gave in and took off to the hospital's day care but only to find out they were full. Panic wanted to surface, but she fought it back. Her patient had serious chest injuries and that pole likely nicked his heart, he needed Cristina in that OR. Finally she decided she would muster up the strength to ask one of the nurses. Cristina Yang and nurses did not get along at all. Any favor she needed Owen asked for her. Before she could open her mouth to speak someone interrupted her.

"Yang, you need help? Need me to baby sit? I won't mind baby sitting for Dr. Hunt." Mark asked.

"Um no. Even though you're married now, I still see you eyeing nurses' behinds and that's what you'll have my son doing. Eyeing and possibly slapping butts. No thanks." Although she was in desperate need of a care taker, she would take her chances with nurses, but to her delight Callie emerged to return a chart. It looked as though she had just finished surgery.

"Thank God," Cristina murmured as she walked up to Callie. "Big favor, I need you to watch Evan. I have an emergent surgery to get to. Please Callie. Thanks." Cristina said as she gently slipped the sling off of her and over Callie. "Here is his diaper bag. I gotta run." And with that she ran off to the OR without letting Callie answer.

When Cristina made it to the scrub room she quickly rummaged for a bar of soap and started scrub furiously and swiftly. Unbeknownst to Cristina, Owen had already called time of death and was already shredding himself of his gloves and gown as she began to rinse off the soap. When Cristina realized what happened she felt guilty. If she had not been so stubborn about day care then maybe she would have made it to the OR in time to help out and save this man. It hurt her heart thinking if this man was married or worse had children he left behind. When Owen walked into the scrub room he immediately read and interpreted Cristina expression and embraced her in a bear hug.

Owen tried to comfort her. "Cristina, do not beat yourself up. This is not your fault. He was already coding before we got into the ER. There was nothing we could do. He was already gone."

Cristina started to sob, "But if I just hurried-If I-I could have-"

"Shhh, Cristina even if you had made it here on time we would still be calling time of death. There was too much damage to his abdomen and organs. The pole completed shredded his aorta. Do not blame yourself."

After several minutes, Cristina collected herself together, with the help of Owen. He always knew what to say in times like this. When they both emerged from the scrub room Lexie and Callie were standing there with Evan and Ethan, ready to hand them over. With pleasure Cristina and Owen took their sons and with nothing else happening at the moment, they settled in an on-call room to nap as family.

The remainder of the day remained a tough one. Owen was right; it was very difficult to look after babies while trying to work in a hospital. Cristina realized this very quickly. The next day they made it to the hospital very early to make sure there were spots available for Ethan and Evan to be put in the SGH's daycare.


	10. Chapter 10

_a/n: Thanks for the reviews/feedback. They really do keep the fic going, so please keep them coming. Thanks :)_

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On work days Owen and Cristina found themselves in a rush. Each of them attempting to swiftly pack diaper bags, and all the extras their babies needed. More often than not, Owen drove and made it to the hospital early enough to have secure spots in daycare for Ethan and Evan while they went off to work. Operating and performing at work was much easier when their children were in daycare. Although it was difficult, Cristina admitted to Owen that he was right about that. Even though Ethan and Evan were in daycare, Owen and Cristina spent each available minute with them and stayed down to the last second. When Cristina would visit she would read from one of her many medical journals, or share stories from the OR, about her day, certain patients, and how much she missed and loved them. For Cristina it was like having the best of both worlds; getting to be an awesome surgeon and having your children right there with her. Owen's visits to the daycare were different. He would spend his time holding them in his arms, planting warm and gentle kisses on their foreheads while whispering how much he missed them. At times he would read them children's books, go over the A-B-Cs or teach try to teach them how to count using his fingers. Whether it was at home or the hospital, Owen was just happy to spend time with them regardless of where it was at.

On the mornings when Ethan and Evan were fussy or not cooperating is when they spent their day with their parents or hospital staff. It was always a challenge for a surgeon to carry around babies during their shifts, especially when emergencies abruptly arose and having to find someone to watch their children. Owen typically found a more than willing nurse to watch one of his sons'. Cristina generally asked a friend or one the cardiac residents, and if none were available she would swallow her pride and ask a nurse. Although they hardly ever did any favors for Cristina, they did it for Owen and of course the adorable little boys. While she was in the OR operating she always requested or asked the temporary sitter to be in the gallery so her sons could watch the surgery. She always asked them press the intercom button, so she could explain the surgery step by step to either Ethan or Evan. When Owen was in the OR and one of his sons' happen to be up in the gallery he always asked which ever sitter to shield their eyes from any gory parts of the surgery. He too requested them to press the intercom button, not to explain the surgery he was performing but to simply speak to his sons or sing them lullabies.

As months passed Ethan and Evan increased in length and size. Their mobility and alertness advanced, especially their attention-getting repertoire; slowly developing new ways, other than crying, of letting Cristina and Owen know what they need and want. Packing Ethan and Evan's diaper bags became a nightly routine. They learned it was easier to do it at night, rather than rush in the morning. The things they packed slightly changed too. With their sons increased weight they definitely made sure they were early enough to make sure daycare was available to them. On Owen and Cristina's day off they enjoyed the new milestones their sons' were accomplishing and the introduction of new foods.

It was a Saturday afternoon and Cristina was sitting on the floor of her living room introducing pureed carrots to 5 month old Ethan and Evan, who were sitting propped up in their bouncers. It was her and Owen's day off together and as usual their day offs was spent with their sons with no hospital interruptions.

"Okay open up," Cristina said to Evan as she slowly brought the spoon to his mouth. "Come on baby, go ahhh."

Cristina thought once the spoon neared his lips he would open and take the food. How wrong she was. Evan did not budge and Cristina kept trying, and eventually the carrots were everywhere but in his mouth. When she was finally ready to give up Owen returned home from retrieving baby supplies. He saw Cristina's efforts because carrots were all on Evans chin, bib and clothes.

"You know the food is supposed to go inside their mouth." Owen teased.

Cristina pursed her lips together. "Well let's see you try."

He dropped the boxes of diapers and wipes on the floor and plopped down in front of Ethan.

"Alright hand over the mashed carrots and spoon woman. I'll show you how it's done," Owen said winking at Cristina.

Before he scooped up any pureed carrots he dipped the tip of his finger in the jar and tasted them. "Cristina this is really cold. No wonder he doesn't want to eat them."

Cristina felt a little embarrassed. "Oh." Was all she said as she cleaned up Evan's mouth and went to warm the food.

When she returned with warm carrots Owen proceeded to feed Ethan's very first serving of carrots.

"Alright buddy, open up." Owen said as he brought the spoon to Ethan lips and sure enough once he felt the spoon near his lips his mouth went agape and took the carrots. "See, I'm a pr-"Owen's teasing was cut off by pureed carrots sprayed on his shirt and face. Ethan sneezed out his carrots, which sent Cristina into a laughing attack.

"That's my boy," Cristina said as she wiped Ethan's mouth clean. "Maybe you should wear a bib too" Cristina said as she patted Owen's back. All he could do was laugh. After the laughter settled Cristina and Owen successfully introduced carrots to Ethan and Evan, and it weren't until later when they saw the effects of it, in their diapers anyway.

In the early evening, Ethan and Evan almost conquered a baby milestone. They were comfortably lying on their gym play mats, hitting and grabbing the toys that hovered above them while Owen and Cristina were folding laundry and packing their bags for tomorrow.

"I wish these socks weren't' so small, then I wouldn't lose them." Cristina complained as she sifted through the batch of baby clothes to find pairs.

Owen chuckled. "Cristina, your socks are twice and big you lose them all the time."

"Well, it still doesn't help that they're tiny."

As Owen was about to speak, his words got caught in his throat at the sight of Ethan and Evan trying to roll on their sides.

"Oh Cristina look at our boys."

"What's wrong?" Cristina asked, a little frightened as she turned her head. "Oh my gosh," She said in a little shock but more amazement. Ethan and Evan were trying with all their might to roll over on their bellies. They would make it to their side only to roll back over on their backs. It had their parents in a trance as they watched their sons continue to try.

When it registered that this was something sentimentally big for them as parents Cristina snapped out of her trance. "Owen go get the camcorder! Hurry!"

Not needing to be told twice he scurried off into the bedroom and returned to the living room with the camera already recording. Owen captured them for a half an hour before giving it a rest. The twins were now turning fussy, and went right to sleep once they were in the arms of their parents. All the efforts in trying to roll on their bellies tired them out.

At the end of the day Cristina and Owen hoped tomorrow's work day would fly by with swift wings. As Ethan and Evan were growing all the new little things were exciting to them as first time parents. They did not want to miss any of their sons' first things, even if it was something as little as turning over from their backs to their bellies.

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To both of their dismay, Owen and Cristina had to operate through their lunch. Lately both of their departments kept them busy enough to keep them away from visits to the daycare, and today's overflow of patients in the ER did not help matters. Not being able to visit Ethan and Evan were days where they were not fully enthralled by medicine or being a surgeon.

At the end of theirs shifts Cristina and Owen quickly made their way to the hospital's daycare and greeted their sons with hugs and warm kisses. As they were leaving Owen thanked the care takers.

"Thank you ladies. Have a nice night." Owen said politely.

"Oh, it's our pleasure," One of nurses' said, as she batted her eye lashes, which made Cristina chuckle. "They sure have grown. I remember how tiny they were when they first started coming and now they're already rolling onto their bellies and sit up pretty well." Cristina and Owen stopped in their tracks.

"They sat up? Without a pillow supporting their back?" Owen asked.

"They rolled over on their bellies?" Cristina asked next.

"Yes. We sat them down and both of them stayed steady for quite some time. And we placed them on one of our play mats and as I turned to get some toys they were on their bellies when I turned back to them. How exciting is that? They grow so fast."

"Yeah they sure do," Owen said offering a weak smile. He was sad he missed it.

Cristina did the same, and walked out of the daycare center, and Owen followed.

Cristina sighed. "Man I can't believe we missed that stuff."

Owen squeezed her shoulder. "I know, me too."

They both walked silently to the car, and the drive home was no different. Sure they would be able to record them rolling over at home, but they wanted to see it for the first time. And when they did get home, Owen captured Ethan and Evan doing just what the care taker said they did. It was a rush to witness it and soothed their temporary sadness of missing it today. However, by the time they were both cuddling in bed, each of them wished they would no longer miss anymore small or big first their sons would do. At least they got to witness their first smiles, and giggles they thought.


	11. Chapter 11

_a/n: This chapter speeds up a little. Please read and review (they keep the fic alive) :)_

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As months wore on Ethan and Evan amplified in nearly everything. The features of their father were becoming more prominent and their eyes becoming more reminiscent of the deep blue ocean. Their auburn hair was growing in nicely and looked as though it was growing feathered, again just the same as their father's. The full lips they shared with Cristina were plumping in nicely, and all the medical talk she was sharing was making them take a liking to medicine at an early age.

By the age of 7 months Ethan and Evan were crawling, upgraded to stage two foods, eating pureed meats, and soft solids with the four teeth they now owned. At home Cristina and Owen had to rip open packets of safety locks for the cabinets, place baby gates to block the twins from going in unwanted and unsafe areas of the house. They no longer changed poopie diapers, by the end of 6 months they began sitting them on their small toilet seats any time they hear them push. The clean up was definitely much easier, which delighted their parents. Fortunately for Cristina and Owen, the crawling happened at home on their day off. Ethan and Evan had already mastered rolling and were eager to figure out just how to get around on their belly. It started off as an army man crawl, which amused Owen and brought him back to the military days and his training. After a few days of that they finally lifted up off the ground and began to crawl, and since then they've been going and going. To both his and Cristina's delight, they conquered this milestone and at home and were able to capture the first time on camera.

As another month passed the life of a surgeon had Cristina and Owen, once again missing another feat their twins would accomplish. Not only that, but now that Ethan and Evan were older, more alert and aware of their mommy and daddy they became attached and leaving them in daycare was a difficult task. Ethan and Evan would grasp their mommy and daddy's shirts not wanting to go into the arms of the familiar care takers. Cristina and Owen were always reluctant to leave them crying, it always broke their heart, but with great strength they were forced to put their emotions aside once they put on their navy blue scrubs. In the midst of another lengthy shift, they only got a brief moment with their sons' before the sounds of their pagers detached them from their quality time. They resented their pagers at times like this. It was a little after noon when Ethan and Evan decided to stand up for the first time. Cristina and Owen had just left to meet a trauma in the pit. They were sitting on the floor playing with large plush building blocks when they decided to use them as leverage to get up. It surprised the care takers and thought the twins were going to take steps but they just stood there. Owen and Cristina wished they could have been there to see it first hand but at least there was still time to witness their first steps.

One moment that every parent wants to witness is their child's first steps, and Cristina and Owen missed it. It pained their chests' that they were missing such moments. Of course they were proud of Ethan and Evan, cheered them on and followed them around at home ready to catch them if they fell. As parents they were excited for their sons' but having to hear another person describe their first steps to them was no fun, and soon started moping during their shifts. Cristina no longer felt like she was experiencing her version of the best of both worlds. As always, the real head honcho of the hospital, Bailey took notice. She once again acted in the role of a therapist and had a pep talk with them explaining to them that it happens and of course brought her own personal experience into it with missing little Tucker's first Halloween, and his kindergarten graduation. With that they started to cheer up and began taking what they could get, and when they did miss significant firsts with Ethan and Evan they didn't let it affect them as much.

In the months leading up to Ethan and Evan's first birthday they made great development. They were walking by nine months, their vision almost near clear, the use of their hands became more agile, now grabbing objects and snatching food off of Owen and Cristina's plates at dinner time. Ethan and Evan now pointed to the things they wanted or books they wanted to be read to. Their little coo's and ah's turned to babbling and then jabbering that sometimes sounded like real worlds, which excited their parents, and made their day when they first uttered the words "mama" and "dada". By the time Ethan and Evan were one year olds, they graduated to solid foods, and were nearly running. Cristina and Owen now had to put objects higher and out of their reach because they took a liking to seeing things crash to the ground and shattering into pieces. They still enjoyed the A-B-C's sung by their father, and to their liking the children's book became longer. Cristina continued to read from her journals, and even though Owen found it odd he never said anything, the twins continued to lay with her on the bed and watch heart surgeries. At one point Owen caught them poking and sliding one of their drumsticks on their stuffed animals, attempting to do surgery on them as in the videos. Owen instantly knew just how smart they were going to be.

On the morning of Ethan and Evan's first birthday party Cristina and Owen were decorating and preparing for the festivities with their friends later in the early evening. They took the day off, cleared their schedules, bumped surgeries and performed some early to possibly have no hospital or medical interruptions on this special day. They planned a small party for Ethan and Evan and only a small group of their friends were attending: Izzie, Alex, George, Meredith, Derek, and all their children. A lot had to be done for the kids and they decided to start early.

The twins took a great liking to the classic disney pixar movie Toy Story. They both loved the movie from beginning to end and it kept them quiet and could sit there for hours watching it over and over. Ethan and Evan went crazy over their favorite characters, Ethan loving the cowboy Woody and Evan going nuts over the space ranger Buzz. With that Cristina and Owen spent the morning decorating half of the large living room with Woody and all things cowboys and the other half with Buzz and all things of space and spaceships. They finished decorating and setting up the games for the kids by early afternoon and settled on the dinning room table to start assembling party favor bags filled with candy.

"Cristina, stop picking at the candy. You are going to eat all of it. Those are for the kids." Owen said as he snatched a batch of bite size chocolates away from her.

Cristina licked her fingers. "What? They're good," she said as she tried to grab more chocolate.

Owen lightly swatted her hand away. "Cristina. Think of the children." That made her chuckled. Not too long along she would have snorted and took the chocolate anyway, but being a mother definitely brought something out in her that she didn't know was there or capable of.

When they finished Owen had to beg Cristina to follow him into the kitchen to help prep and prepare the food for later on.

"Why do you want to me to help you cook? Clearly you remember that I don't."

Owen laughed. "Oh I remember ever time I cook. And we're just going to prep, just cutting veggies and stuff so I don't have to do it later."

"I don't know how to chop. You know this."

"Cristina, stop being so difficult and help me. If you can use a scalpel you can use a knife." He said as he rubbed her shoulders as they walked to the counter.

Owen went into the fridge and retrieved veggies, poultry and meat.

"We're cutting chicken?" Cristina asked, her facial expression hoping he would say no.

"No. I'm going to season and marinate it." Owen answered as he handed her a chef's knife. "Here, dice and slice some onion and tomato for me. Please."

Cristina nodded and began her version of slicing and dicing.

"Cut the stem of the onion first." Owen corrected and went to making his marinades for his chicken and meat. When he glanced back over at Cristina and her chopping he had a few more request. "Cristina you have to peel it before you cut it." So she did and then continued with her cutting. "Cut them into small pieces, those are too big." Owen said.

"Yes iron chief. Anything else?" Owen chuckled. "If you don't like my cutting skills then you come over here and do it."

Owen stopped was he was doing, cleaned off his hands to go plant a warm kiss on Cristina's cheek. "I love the way you chop onions."

Cristina smiled. "Oh, right."

The food preparation was finished within twenty minutes, mostly thanks to Owen, but he always enjoyed having Cristina at least trying in the kitchen and she was great sarcastic company, which he loved. From food preparations they decided to go to a local party store to get their balloons blow up, when they returned they began wrapping the numerous toys, and clothes they purchased for their first birthday.

Cristina and Owen were grateful to Meredith and Derek, who took the boys last night. It gave them time to finish all preparations. They wanted the setup for their party to be a big surprise to Ethan and Evan; because once they saw their favorite cartoon characters they would go nuts.

Everyone arrived on time. Ethan and Evan went crazy over seeing giant decorations of Woody and Buzz, as did the Meredith and Derek's two boys, Robbie and Chase, and Alex and Izzie's 4 team of wrestlers, all boys too.

Cristina and Owen greeted Ethan and Evan with a loud shout of "Happy Birthday!" and gave them big bear hugs and several kisses. They were all elated for this day, their very first birthday.

Owen had already started cooking and barbecuing out back when his pager went off. "Damn it." He muttered in frustration.

"What's up?" Alex curiously asked.

Owen sighed. "Patient is on the way to the hospital. Multiple GSW's to the abdomen."

"Here," Alex gestured to the spatula, "go, and try and hurry back."

Owen immediately found his sons' apologized and said he would be back as soon as possible. He apologized to Cristina, kissed her goodbye and said he would try and make it back in time to sing happy birthday.

With one important person down at the party, Cristina and company did their best to entertain the kids. She started with food, and then games. When the kids became eager to peek at the cake she put on a cartoon movie and finally took an opportunity to kick up her feet with the rest of the adults.

A few hours elapsed and Cristina was running out of ideas with all the games and prizes already given out. Just when she was about to give in and start with the cake and presents she received a call from Owen saying he was in his truck and on his way. She breathed a sigh of relief, let everyone know and sat down on the kitchen table with Meredith.

"It's been 30 minutes since he called." Cristina was annoyed. "It does not take this long to get here."

"Maybe there's traffic."

"At this time? I don't think so." Cristina began biting her nails as a knot was slowly forming in her stomach. "I tried calling four times Meredith and nothing. Where the hell is?"

Meredith squeezed Cristina's hand. "He'll be –"

Meredith's words were cut off by Derek's pager, causing both her and Cristina's head to dart in his direction. He quickly grabbed it and silenced the beeping and read the page. His facial expression spoke volumes to Cristina. The knot in her stomach became bigger and worry and anxiety rushed through her body.

"Its Owen, isn't it?"


	12. Chapter 12

When Owen arrived at the hospital he pushed Ethan and Evan's first birthday to the back of his mind. Once the fabric of the navy blue scrubs touched his skin his emotions of possibly missing them blow out their first candles went out the window. His family was placed to the side when the ambulance doors went flying open. His mind averted and solely focused on the task at hand; a patient with multiple gsw's to the abdomen. As always Owen gave strict orders and instructions to the medical staff at hand. During surgery he took point and with the help of fellow surgeons, stabilized and operated to perfection as a team. When he knew the patient was stable enough and going to make it he allowed the emotions he was holding back to be released. It pained him that he was missing Ethan and Evan's first birthday. One year ago today was one of the most fulfilling days of his life and when he and Cristina were shocked and surprised to know little Evan had been baking in the oven right along with Ethan. He could not imagine his life with out those two boys.

With so many hours gone by Owen immediate scrubbed out, quickly discarded his scrubs and changed into civilian clothes. He jetted out of the hospital and ran to his truck. He was determined to not miss his sons blowing out their first candles. He wanted to be the one holding the camera, and capturing the special moment himself.

The street lights were not on Owen's side. Every traffic light he came to happen to be red. At each stop he would twiddle his fingers on the steering wheel just waiting for the light to turn green so he could quickly accelerate closer to home. It had been five minutes since he left the hospital and immediately called Cristina.

"Hey. I'm in the truck on my way home. I'll be there soon." Owen assured Cristina.

"Okay. Well hurry. It's getting late and the kids are getting antsy."

"I will. And give Ethan and Evan kisses for me."

"I will. Now hurry up and get home." Cristina said and was already placing the phone down.

"Hey," Owen yelled through the phone.

Cristina fumbled the phone. "Yeah? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just wanted to tell you I love you." Owen said.

Cristina smiled through the phone. "I love you too."

"And do not start handing out presents or start cutting the cake without me. Wait for me."

When he hung up the phone he yet again came to another red light. It was as though some super natural forces were against him on this day, which was frustrating him to oblivion. It never took this long to get home. When the light turned green, Owen stopped the dancing of his fingers on the steering wheel, gripped it and again accelerated towards home. Only this time he was thrown off route by another car nicking the tail of truck and sending him flying into a corner traffic pole.

As the truck started spinning it seemed like it was doing so in slow motion for Owen. Once he felt the impact of another car hit his truck he knew he was going to go spinning out of control. He was anticipating his truck to hit something but it felt like it was taking an eternity to do so. When the side of truck did finally make contact with the pole his head hitting glass and metal knocked him senseless. He blackout momentarily and was quite disoriented. Somehow he managed to fathom what just happened. His breathing became rapid and felt scared. He found it difficult to try and move, especially his arms. Panic was seeping through. He managed to tame his frightfulness and reach for his phone. He needed to call Cristina. As he attempted to flip open his phone he was stopped by gushes of warm blood streaming down his forehead and covering his vision. He was becoming lightheaded and within seconds drifted off to the sound of faint ambulance sirens.

- - - - - - - -

Derek briefly hesitated, wishing that the page he received was wrong, wishing he could give Cristina anything but the answer he was about to pitch.

"Yeah. It's Owen." Derek answered in a cracked voice before quickly putting on his coat and rushing to his car. It sent shockwaves through all of them. Cristina had no more words and no more questions. The knot still very present in her stomach, and a new one was forming in her throat. Izzie and George rounded up all the kids and secured them safely in her minivan and followed Alex and Derek to the hospital. Meredith stayed behind with Cristina trying to get her to take steps to her car.

The car ride seemed to last an eternity for Cristina. The whole way Meredith kept trying to comfort her, assure her that everything would be okay, but Cristina's ears would not allow her voice to enter. Her brain needed concrete facts about her husband, and Meredith possessed none. As they drove further to the hospital they came to a stop. It was the accident scene and Cristina's eyes caught sight of Owen's truck. The tail of his truck crushed and the driver's side smashed into the traffic pole. She was a doctor and she just how extensive his head injuries would be. Unbeknownst to Cristina, her eyes began producing tears at a rapid rate.

When they did reach the hospital Cristina needed assistance from Meredith to exit the car. Tears were still streaming down her face. Her heart rate now increased, afraid to walk into the halls of the hospital. Each step was becoming as heavy as stone to take.

At the hospital things seemed to be happening sporadically. One moment Cristina was entering the hospital doors and the next she was standing in front of the OR board searching frantically for Owen's name. Shepherd was operating on him right now and she was contemplating on whether to rush to the OR or not.

Cristina did not know how she ended up in the scrub room, just several feet away from Owen's body laying on the operating table. She collapsed down in front of the door, not able to bring herself to scrub in or even look through the glass window. Her ears were fully intact now. Hearing all the medical terms, his stats, and Derek's voice all giving her concrete facts about her husband. Words such as "hang more O negative," "subdural and epidural hematomas" and "possible swelling of the brain" or "high pressure in the skull" made her tears stream down at a faster pace, as if her eyes were a faucet. The thought of losing Owen was not something she could bear.

Within a matter of minutes different and frantic words were escaping the mouths of Derek and the nurses. "Get the crash cart." Those words sliced her heart open. The sound of a flat line made her body shake violently and as the paddles shocked Owen's heart it jolted Cristina's as well. Her husband was slipping away. As Derek and his team continued with shock and after shock Cristina curled into a ball on the floor of the scrub room. Thoughts of her father entered her mind. The events of the car crash and her efforts to save her father swirled through her brain. With each shock being sent to Owen's heart it ripped old wounds from the day Cristina lost her father. The pain she felt.

This very moment, this awful accident was the main reason why Cristina originally did not want children. She knew what it felt like to lose a parent and never wanted to possibly subject any child to feel that loss. Here she was, with two one year old boys, spitting images of Owen, and their father slipping away from their lives.

How would she tell Ethan and Evan? How would she raise them without Owen? How would she survive without her soul mate who constantly breathed life into her? All those questions haunted her and none of which she had the answers to.

* * *

_a/n: Short chapter, but a long juicy one is on its way. Thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming because they are what keep the fic alive. :)_


	13. Chapter 13

_Fresh off of a bank robbery, Cristina crept low behind the large sofa in their living room, scoping out a horse to steal. She was dressed as a cowgirl, who happened to be wanted by three red headed sheriffs in the deserts of the Wild West. As she peeked around the corners of the couch she saw that the coast was clear to snatch the horse and ride off into the next town. Cowgirl Cristina emerged from her hiding post and reached the horse._

"_Reach for the sky!" Sheriff Owen yelled in his best country accent, making the younger Sheriff Hunts giggle. "You're caught red handed."_

_Cristina fought back a smile and turned around to face the good looking sheriffs. "Oh no, sheriff Hunts!"_

"_Drop the bag of money little lady." Sheriff Owen ordered. She did as she was told and dropped the bag to her feet._

"_Alright little troo-I mean sheriffs. Go and collect that money." They should have been called giggling sheriffs because they thought it was all so hilarious. Through their laughter they ran to their mom and retrieved the sack of money, just as their dad told them. _

"_Okay missy. Start a getting' a move on. Jail time for you." _

_Cristina winked at Ethan and Evan as she passed them to take her place in jail._

"_Alright little Hunts, what shall the punishment be?" He asked. In response all they did was laugh._

_Owen knew what they wanted to happen. "Who votes for tickling?" he asked._

_They both jumped up and down nodding to his question. Cristina knew what was coming and tried to make a slow run for it._

"_Oh the bandit is trying to escape! Let's round her up boys!" With that Owen retrieved the tied up jump rope tied into a lasso and caught Cristina around her waist with ease, which delighted Ethan and Evan who jumped and cheered in excitement._

"_Double punishment for you little lady. Trying to escape like that."_

"_No please, I give up." Cowgirl Cristina pleaded. Owen's tickling was deadly._

"_A little too late for that." And with that Owen immediately started tickling Cristina's side causing her erupt in loud laughter that always made Ethan and Evan explode in the same unique laughs they shared with their mom._

"_Owen! Owen!," Cristina yelled through her laughter. "Ahahaha-Stop-hahahaha-let me get a breath in-ahaha."_

_Owen paused. "What do you say boys, should I stop tickling mommy?"_

_Their response was a shake of their heads in unison. "Sorry bandit, I gotta follow my partners' laws."_

_With that Owen proceeded to tickle Cristina, continuing her to laugh insanely – causing her eyes to water and cheeks to hurt. When Owen finally stopped Cristina was out of breath, but it did not last long because Ethan and Evan started tickling her once more. Her laugh was amusing to them and loved hearing it. This was just an example of what life was like at home with little hunts.  
_

_- - - - - - -_

Cristina did not recall moving from the scrub room floor. She had no recollection of Alex scooping her up into his arms before she could hear whether life was restored or time of death was called. She did not remember him taking her to an exam room where Meredith and her twins awaited her, but Cristina vividly remembered that day; the day before the twins' birthday – yesterday. Yesterday when Owen was home being an amazing husband and father. When Owen was playing make believe cowboy games with Ethan and Evan, and tickling their mommy for their amusement. She wanted her wonderful family man back. Life was being lost and she desperately wanted to press pause and rewind, to go back to yesterday when Owen's heart held a steady beat. Yesterday's cowboys antic and wishing and hoping she could turn back the hands of time is what went through Cristina's mind as she consoled Ethan and Evan.

Although very young, Ethan and Evan were no fools. They could sense the awful feeling that lingered in the room, the terrified expression that their mom wore on her face scared them. They began calling out for their daddy, which made more tears stream down Cristina's cheeks and onto the tops of their heads. They wanted him to come and console them, to take this horrible feeling away. To make their mommy stop crying and start laughing just like in the make believe games they played.

Cristina possessed no comforting words for her sons'. They were too small to understand exactly what was happening with their father but they knew something awful was present. She could not tell them their father was hurt and going to be okay because she did not know. So instead she did something that surprised Meredith and Alex. She began to pray, and pray aloud as she rocked back and forth with Ethan and Evan in her arms.

Hours passed and Cristina remained rocking Ethan and Evan, who fell fast asleep, still praying, repeating the same prayer over and over. Meredith and Alex were not familiar with Jewish prayers, let alone religion, but Cristina had repeated it so many times they memorized the words and joined in. They all knew just how serious this situation was and wanted help from everywhere possible.

As Derek walked into the exam room silence fell upon all of them. Alex took both boys from Cristina's arms and placed them on the bed. Cristina stopped praying; her tears immediately came to a halt, and swallowed hard. Her eyes were terrified to meet his. She knew exactly why he was there; to deliver news about Owen, but afraid about what kind.

Derek sat in a chair adjacent from Cristina and stared in her direction. As he removed his scrub cap he clenched it tightly in his hand and sighed deeply. Cristina was hesitant to meet his gaze but did so with worrisome eyes. His eyes hinted something awful that made her lip quiver in fear. Her ears were ready; her brain ready for whatever information his lips were going to release, but her heart was not. Her heart was not ready to fathom any news of Owen no longer being in life, or worse the life of her twins.

To immense relief no words of death escaped Derek's mouth. He spoke of Owen's head injuries, his surgery and its difficulty. He mentioned a broken left arm and one broken rib. Cristina took in what he said but was still awaiting the awful news that still lingered in his eyes. The dreadful news he had yet to release. The bad news he was so reluctant to tell her.

The words "postoperative seizure" and "coma" made Cristina erupt in frightful silent sobs. It made Alex shake his head vigorously. Owen was the first male figure he ever looked up to. He was a great friend to Alex and a phenomenal mentor to him. He could not believe his own ears. Meredith wept silently as she rubbed the backs of sleeping Ethan and Evan, who were tucked in tightly on one of the beds. Derek had never seen Cristina cry, and although they were never the best of friends he embraced her. He reminded her that a person in a comatose state was very much alive and to hold onto the facts that they typically last from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

Cristina wanted to hold on to those words, and be hopeful, but she was a doctor. Although her specialty was hearts, she knew a thing or two about comas. She could not fall comfortably on those facts, she could not rule out the dreadful possibilities of it lasting for several years, or worse die. She would have to painfully wait.

When all the emotions settle Derek released his brace and spoke.

"The coma is mainly related to increased pressure of the brain. Right now we are using hyperventilation which increases the rate and depth of breathing so that the blood vessels in the brain constrict and-"

"The blood flow slows down." Cristina finished. "I know what it means."

Derek reached out and squeezed Cristina's hand. "We're very hopeful this is going to work."

She wanted to believe him and say okay but all the daunting possibilities of what could happen did not allow her.

"Cristina he _will_ wake up. Come on," he said tugged her hand. "Let's take you to Owen."

"I'll look after the boys Cristina," Meredith added and offered a comforting smile. "I have tomorrow off."

She nodded and followed Derek to Owen's room.

It was difficult to see her husband so bruised and battered. The cast on his arm, cuts on his cheeks and forehead, the bandages on his head all brought more tears to Cristina's eyes. She did not know the body was capable of producing all the tears she was shedding.

Cristina released her hand from Derek's and slowly made her way beside Owen. She gently placed his hand in hers and squeezed it as she placed a warm kiss on his cheek. It saddened her that his body was not responsive to any sort of physical stimulation.

She still held his hand for dear life. She used her other hand to cradle his face and spoke softly.

"Please." She uttered through soft whimpers, "Please wake up. Come back to us Owen, Please."

At this point Derek left the room, leaving Cristina to have time alone with her husband.

Exhaustion or tiredness did not register in Cristina's mind as she spent the night at the hospital. She never left Owen's beside or released her grip from his hand. She was afraid to fall asleep or leave his bedside for even a second just in case his eyes would sudden open. Alex visited the room frequently, updating her on her twins and how they were safely spending the night at Meredith's house. He brought her strong black coffee and vending machine snacks, none of which she ate but he continued to bring them anyway. He was worried and scared but did his best put on a strong face.

Derek called both Cristina and Owen's mom and together they entered Owen's room with fearsome expressions. They were greeted by a gloomy red-rimmed eyed Cristina. Sarah, Owen's mother immediately went to her son's bed side and placed a hand on his chest. She averted her eyes momentarily and gave Cristina sympathetic look before turning her attention back to her son. She sobbed silently for her son to wake up. Helen Rubenstein placed one hand over her heart as she rushed to Cristina's side. Her and her daughter were never close but she remained by her side, stroking her hand and offering comforting words. Although under different circumstances she knew Cristina was thinking of Ethan and Evan and comparing this to her own missing father.

They spent hours silently speaking in their shaky voices. Both mothers tried to convince Cristina to go home, shower, eat and get a little rest, but she refused claiming she was fine and would not leave his side under any circumstances.

As Sarah began praying quietly for her son Helen took the opportunity to speak with Cristina.

"Where are the children?" she asked.

"Meredith is looking after them," Cristina answered.

Helen hesitated before asking her next question. "Have they seen their father?"

"No," Cristina simply said.

"Would you give me directions? I would like to see them."

Cristina took Helen's blackberry and entered the address into the navigation.

"I know the timing is awful but I brought them presents."

Cristina's red-rimmed eyes met her mothers'. "Do not let them open any presents. I promised Owen I would wait for him. He doesn't want to miss it."

Helen's mouth went agape to speak but chose to close it and nodded instead.

A few hours later she returned with Ethan and Evan. They instantly ran to their mother and hugged her tightly.

Cristina did her absolute best to hide the horrifying expressions they witnessed yesterday.

"Hey guys. I missed you so much last night," She said as gave them kisses.

When their deep ocean blue eyes met hers she offered them a warm and comforting smile. They were exact replicas of Owen and it made her yearn even more for him to wake up. Having her sons there allowed her to push aside any fears she had of Owen not waking up. She needed to be strong for them and believe that he was going to pull through. She needed to believe that they would once again be a family.

When Ethan and Evan left Cristina's embrace they trotted over to Owen and nudged him for him to wake up.

"Dada, Dada." They both said as they shook his right arm. When there was no response, they became puzzled, and looked to their mother for answers. Before Cristina could even form a thought Sarah spoke for her.

Although they did not fully fathom what she said her warm smile made them feel better. "Sweeties, you daddy is sleeping. He's very tired." She explained hugging them. With that Cristina was determined to believe Owen would wake up. Her sons would experience no step-father as she did.

- - - - - - - -

A week passed. The hyperventilation was successful in decreasing intracranial pressure but Owen had yet to wake from his comatose state. Cristina looked for answers from Derek and the internet but all stating she would just have to wait. Meredith eventually got her to shower, get into some clean clothes and eat something. She told Cristina it looked like she was sitting shiva for Owen and he was far from dead. It immediately got Cristina out of her chair and shower with vast speed. She ate toast or muffins with coffee or orange juice. Sarah and Helen visited every day and stayed until the last second of visiting hours were over. Ethan and Evan go to see their dad every day; sometimes allowed to even stay the night with Cristina, but for the most part remained with either Helen or Sarah for the night. They missed their nightly bedtime stories both their parents would read to them or better yet act out. The twins missed being a family.

During week two, Cristina began telling Owen stories consisting of how they first met, their engagement, their wedding. She touched on being pregnant, the surprising but blessed arrival of their twins. She spoke of all the memories they built together as a couple, as husband and wife and as a family, all in hopes that it would spark something wake him up. When Ethan and Evan would visit Cristina she would read from the extensive children books Owen purchased for them. She played them their favorite songs to dance it out to as a family, and their wedding song.

Cristina got all of those ideas from stories she heard or read about their loved one waking up after hearing an entire music cd, or stories from their life. Each visit Ethan and Evan would bring their Woody and Buzz dolls, hinting to their mom they wanted to watch the movie, but it did not register or she began playing or reading or telling a familiar story Owen would recognize.

It was exactly two weeks from the date of the accident – Ethan and Evan's first birthday. Cristina had lost ten pounds and looked exhausted beyond belief. She feasted on vending machine snacks and occasional cafeteria food brought my one of her friends. Helen and Sarah continued to visit with the twins every day, and her friends became regular visitors. Even with all the people supporting and there for Owen she refused to leave the hospital. She continued her showering, eating and sleeping at the hospital.

"Mom,Mom." Ethan yelled running up to her. He was carrying his and Evan's favorite movie in the world, Toy Story.

Cristina caressed his cheek. "Oh sweet, there's no DVD-players here."

The nurse who was taking Owen's stats interjected. "Oh, we have that movie on VHS here at the hospital. Would you like me to run to peds and fetch the movie for you?"

Cristina looked into the eyes of both of her sons. "Sure." She could not tell them no when they gave her the same puppy dog eyes Owen did.

When the movie was popped into the TV's built-in VHS player Ethan and Evan comfortably plopped on a chair in front of their father's hospital bed. Cristina smiled as she saw how excited they became by the familiar music and flash of the disney trademark castle.

When the part where Woody tells Mr. Potato head to reach for the sky, it vividly brought back memories of the last time they acted out their own versions of this. It brought fresh tears to Cristina's swollen eyes. She grabbed Owen's hand and bowed her head on his bed.

Cristina shut her eyes and squeezed them tightly closed. "Please." She whispered softly, "Please wake up."

As the cartoon movie played for Ethan and Evan Cristina felt something. It surprised her and brought her great joy.

The hand she held so tightly in hers began to move. Owen's fingers were lightly shifting, attempting to curl around Cristina's.

* * *

**a/n: Thank you for all the reviews, they are what keep this fic alive. I would also like to mention I am not great on the medical lingo, so please forgive any mistakes or incorrect information in this fictional story.**


	14. Chapter 14

_a/n: Sorry for the delay. I went into reader mode and was enjoying other fics. Short chapter but I should have another one up by the end of the day. With that said read, review and hopefully enjoy! :)_

* * *

Owen was already breathing on his own, which brought immeasurable relief to Cristina, so the night he moved his fingers only intensified her longing and yearning for him. She missed him beyond belief. She yearned for his loving arms to be wrapped around her, for his lips to capture hers, to hear him utter the words "I love you". She was eager for his eyes to flutter open and become completely aware and conscious of his family awaiting him. She desperately ached for the fun loving father of her twins to return, and his significant breakthrough offered enormous hope that he would fully wake up soon.

Over the next five days Owen showed progressive signs of completely detaching from his comatose state.

One afternoon while Cristina was calming the tantrums of Ethan and Evan Owen showed another signal of life. The twins repeatedly said "choco, choco". It was their newly found way of asking for chocolate. In response Cristina repeatedly told them no. She regretted introducing it to them at such a young age, Owen would have been against it. In return Ethan and Evan stomped their feet and pouted. As Cristina grabbed her forehead and sighed deeply Owen's head moved from side to side. The surprised reaction that became plastered on Cristina's face silenced the twins and once again she tried to speak to him, hoping he would at last jerk awake. She had Shepherd page immediately but he explained how coming out of a coma can take time to fully disconnect.

Another sign of hope transpired during a routine round by a handful of nurses. Every morning they would shift and move Owen's limbs and body to prevent bed sores. During this rotation Owen's eyes fluttered open, revealing the deep blue ocean color he shared with his sons. His eye lids were open, but there was absolutely no emotion or state of consciousness in his stare, just blank. Once again, Cristina's hope heightened.

During her usual routine at night, Cristina comfortably situated herself in a chair and scooted it as close as she could get it to Owen's bed. This time as she reached and ran her hand down his arms and taking his hand he breathed deep. Slightly taken back Cristina immediately removed her hand from his. She briefly thought she was tired and imagined it but when she placed his hand in hers once more he breathed deep. It was far from her imagination, he was responding to her touch. She released his hands and caressed his cheek and his head shifted. She kissed his lips and although there was no response from his lips he once again took a deep breath.

In days to follow Owen would sporadically shift his head, move his fingers or another number of numerous movements. It was a painful wait and was quickly wearing down Cristina's patience. All these signals of life and he was still not fully conscious. It was starting to become frustrating.

- - - - - - - -

"Morning Cristina." Sarah greeted Cristina with a cup of coffee. "Here. Looks like you could use a pick me up."

Cristina forced out a smile. "Thank you Mrs. Hunt."

"So he still hasn't fully wakened up yet huh?" Sarah said, taking a seat beside Cristina.

She sighed. "No," she said rubbing her forehead.

Sarah reached out and touched Cristina's shoulder. "It'll happen soon sweetheart."

"Yeah?" Cristina said. "When? When is soon? He's giving off all these signs of life and still is not awake. When is soon going to happen?"

Sarah knew how hard this had been on Cristina so she did not mind the frustrated tone. She grabbed Cristina's hand and squeezed it firmly. "Hang in there sweetie. It is going to happen." Cristina's eyes were welling with tears, but stopped at the sounds of the familiar steps of her sons nearing the room.

"Mommy, Mommy." Ethan and Evan gave yelling into the room straight to their mothers arms.

She squeezed them tightly and kissed their foreheads. "I've missed you guys," she said looking into their eyes.

When they were done nuzzling in their mother's arms both twins turned their attention to Owen.

"Dada, dada." They looked to their mother. "Sheep?" Ethan asked.

"Yes baby, daddy is still sleeping."

Ethan and Evan turned to each other and stared before running to Owen's side. "Careful guys," Cristina said with worried eyes as they tried to climb up on the bed.

"Up, up." Both boys shouted in unison.

Cristina placed her coffee down to settle the boys down but was stopped by Owen's mom. "Let em. They miss their dad."

Cristina could not deny that. Ethan and Evan missed and ached for Owen just as much as she did. So she just watched as they did their best to wake him up. When their shouting efforts failed they resorted to touch. They each attempted to lift Owen's arms. "weech, weech." Their efforts saddened Cristina, she desperately wished Owen would wake up and brighten up their day, but this was one thing she had no control over. It was the worst feeling.

As the twins continued Cristina eventually smiled. Reach for the sky, she thought. Before she could delve deeper in her thoughts the sound of cheering little boys stopped her.

For the first time in weeks Owen's eyes finally held emotion, a sense of alertness, and consciousness.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God."

Cristina eyes immediately began producing tears. Tears full of joy. Her husband was at last awake.

"Someone page Dr. Shepherd," Cristina yelled out in the hall to the nurses.

She then approached Owen and caressed his cheek. "Owen, God, I'm so glad you woke up. I love you so much. I'm so glad you came back to us."

In response Owen moved his head away from Cristina's hand. He was confused and disoriented, unaware of who exactly was touching or surrounding him. His eyes blinked constantly as if his brain were trying to grasp what was going on and where exactly he was at. The only word he managed to stutter out was "what?" It was clear he was slow at responding to the situation at hand.

Cristina pulled her hand back to her side. Does he remember me? She thought. Little doses of anxiety were creeping into her. She quickly left the room towards the nurses stations.

"Did any of you hear me?" she asked, becoming slightly exasperated. "Page Shepherd now!" She exclaimed and stormed back to Owen's room.

Rather than return to his side she took a seat and began fidgeting. She was nervous and frightful as she watched the twins and Sarah speak to a dazed and confused Owen.


	15. Chapter 15

Derek gently gripped Cristina's arms. "He remembers you. Cristina try and relax. This is great news. He woke up. Be happy."

"Then why is-" She began.

Derek immediately cut her off. "Cristina stop thinking like a wife for a second. Think like a doctor just in this moment. It's not like the movies where the person in the coma wakes up right away and is able to think and talk normally. It's very rare that it ever happens. He's confused, that is normal. He has no memory of the accident; give him some time to fathom all this information."

Cristina sighed and placed her hands on her hips. She bowed her head. "Sorry. This whole thing has just been…"

"I know." Derek assured her. "Right now he can only slowly respond to what is going on. Just try and remain patient. He's awake, let's focus on that and take baby steps to get him responding normally, okay?"

"Okay," Cristina agreed.

- - - - - - -

Cristina was tired of waiting. The wait for Owen to regain a full conscious level nearly deteriorated her patience. However with the help of her mothers, friends and most of all the twins, they managed to help Owen regain his ability to talk normal.

At first, progress was relatively slow. It took a full day for Owen to form more than one word and when he did they were great comforts to his family. Ethan and Evan raced to Owen's hospital room, overjoyed that their father was done taking his lengthy nap. Their grandmas Sarah and Helen helped them up on their father's bed, who was now propped up in a sitting position. They hugged their father tightly and smile the brightest smiles as they looked into his eyes.

It took Owen a few seconds to acknowledge who exactly they were. He did not forget them, but processing everything was a little slow. As they remained on his lap his lips slowly began turning up into a small smile. A few minutes later the words "My boys" escaped his mouth, which sounded very raspy. He remembers, Cristina thought. When the time came for Ethan and Evan to leave his mouth formed a full smile and attempted to kiss them good night.

Cristina was more talkative during Owen's second night awake. She was filling him in on details that he missed while he was in his comatose state. She mostly spoke of Ethan and Evan, and how she slipped up and introduced them to chocolate bars. As she continued Owen's eyes stayed glued to her. He admired her face, her frazzled tendrils, and finally could not take his eyes off of her lips. When she finally finished speaking Owen opened up his hand towards her. She rushed to his side and placed her hand in his. "What is it sweetie?" He wanted to respond. He wanted to cup her face and kiss her passionately and convey how much he loved her in a kiss, but his brain was slow at telling his body to move or his mouth to speak. In his mind he was frustrated but by the expression he wore on his face you would never have guessed it. After a few moments of silence Owen finally tugged at her hand and Cristina lied down beside Owen, resting on his chest. At last the words "Love you" escaped his mouth. In that moment she breathed the greatest relief of her life. He does remember me, she thought. Before falling asleep in the familiar and loving arms she missed so much, she lifted up her head and gazed deeply into his eyes. "If you fall asleep tonight, please wake up again in the morning."

As the week wore on Derek reassured Cristina that the type of brain damaged Owen experienced would not interfere in recovering just as he was before. He was more than positive all his memories would still be there and very capable to function just as he did before the coma. And he was right.

As the weeks wore on Derek continued with test, making sure Owen was alright. He did simple exercises with Owen such as puzzles and equations, all of which he passed. Alex would visit every day, making simple conversation about his kids, Izzie, or sports, and occasionally informing and reassuring him the Trauma wing was being well taken care of.

Owen regained all movement in his body. He needed a couple of sessions of therapy to become completely familiarized with moving his legs and his twins and Cristina were there every step of the way. With much patience all of his memories as child up to the day before Ethan and Evan's first birthday re-flooded his mind.

Cristina was elated the day Owen got discharged from the hospital. Not only excited to have the family back in tact but happy to be getting away from Seattle Grace. She spent too many months living out of it. Both Owen and Cristina requested a leave of absence and the Chief was more than willing to approve it, stating for them to take as much time as they needed, but deep down he was really freaking out. He would miss his top Cardio and Trauma surgeon.

Owen's first night away from the hospital was wonderful. He enjoyed watching Cristina attempt to make baked ziti. It was of course a complete disaster, which brought about uncontrollable laughter from Owen and the twins. In the end, Cristina settled on the only 'dish' she could not screw up; sandwiches. Owen and the twins were comfortably sitting on the plush king size bed when Cristina brought 'dinner' to the bed.

Ethan and Evan situated themselves in the middle of the bed, nibbling on their sandwiches, while Owen and Cristina took post on each end.

Although looking forward to pasta, Owen was just grateful he was not eating anymore hospital food.

As Owen took the first bite of his sandwich Cristina spoke.

"I'm sorry I ruined the pasta. I'll practice tomorrow."

Owen swallowed. "Cristina, I'm the cook, remember? And besides I love your sandwiches. They're the best." With that he gave her a wink and devoured the rest of his sandwich.

Cristina just smiled. She admired the perfect night that was transpiring. Her wonderful husband was home, her twins elated and excited about that and the toy story movie they were all watching. Happiness had returned once again.

"Criiiiiiisssstttiiiiiiiinnnnaaaaaaaa, are you there?" Owen exaggerated.

"Huh?" She said shaking her.

"I asked if you were going to eat that," Owen repeated, pointing at her sandwich.

"Ohhh. No." Cristina handed over her sandwich.

Owen took a huge bite. "You okay?" He asked with his mouth full.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking is all."

Owen eyed her for awhile, and briefly thought of asking further questions but refrained.

Cristina averted her attention back to her twins. She watched them as they laughed uncontrollably, cheered, acted certain parts out with Owen and did their version of lip syncing.

"Let's get these guys in their cribs." Owen said as he got up from the bed.

"They look comfortable. Let's leave em."

Owen smiled. "Okay."

Cristina scurried off with the plates to the kitchen and grabbed Ethan and Evan's blankets on the way back to her bedroom. They each covered a twin and tucked them tightly in the center of the bed.

Owen and Cristina situated themselves on each side of the bed, acting as a safety barrier for their sons.

When all lights were out Owen leaned over his sons and captured Cristina's lips. They both missed that feeling, and within seconds the light kiss quickly turned passionate. Owen placed one hand on the back of her head, parted her lips with his tongue and slipped it inside her mouth. Before anymore tension or heat could rise between them, Cristina pulled away.

"Any more of that and our little ones will definitely be moved to their own beds."

Owen grinned. "Tomorrow night they should sleep in their own beds."

The next day Owen witnessed and recorded Ethan and Evan opening their presents from their first birthday. They received items they _needed_ from their grandparents and items they _wanted_ from their parents. Cristina had another Toy Story cake baked from their local bakery shop. She and Owen sang Ethan and Evan a very belated Happy Birthday. To their parents' amusement it took the twins six attempts to blow out their candle. Owen then told them to dive right in. Ethan picked up a big chunk of cake and shoved it in his mouth. Evan however practically dipped his whole face in the cake for a bite. When the laughter settled and both boys were cleaned up they made their way to their play area to enjoy their new toys, leaving Cristina and Owen to clean up the mess on the floor.

When everything was spic and span Owen and Cristina nestled on their sofa and admired their little ones.

"Thank you." Owen stated.

Cristina furrowed her brow. "For what?"

"For waiting for me. You knew how badly I wanted to be present for their first birthday. So thanks for waiting for me." He explained, and planted a gently kiss on her forehead.

By noon Owen was back in the swing of things with cooking. He made Ethan and Evan's favorite spaghetti and meat balls for lunch. It was messy, and most of it ended up on their clothes or the floor, but they loved it. As more of the day elapsed they went through all the motions and activities they used to, before the accident as if nothing had changed.

When night finally fell Owen kissed and hugged Ethan and Evan to pieces before tightly tucking them in their cribs. He lingered in their room a little longer tonight, admiring and being so grateful that he had such an amazing wife, children and most of all that he was alive. He eventually made it to his bedroom and reminded Cristina of just why he wanted the kids to sleep in their own bed tonight.

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_a/n: Read, review and hopefully enjoy. ;) I have not proof read this chapter yet so forgive any mistakes, I will fix them soon. I would also like to apologize for any wrong or incorrect medical talk in this fictional story. To the loyal readers, expect a time slight time jump in the next chapter. Thank you again for the reviews!_


	16. Chapter 16

_a/n: Just a quick note to say this is the final update, for now. The last chapters will be published after the season finale of the show. With that said hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks and take care. ;)_

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Ethan and Evan Hunt were delighted to have both parents home. Every single day and night was entertaining to them. They adored the non-stop fun and love. As a family their routines of make believe games continued, consisting of cowboys, space, pirates, everything, you name it. Movie nights continued as well. Each night they would snuggle on the sofa or bed and watch a new cartoon film, but always fell asleep to Toy Story. For Owen, it held deep meaning, since that's what was playing when he first moved his fingers. He also took back his place as iron chef of the hunt household. To his surprise Cristina joined him every time he cooked a meal, and soon enough he had three sous chefs accompanying him in the kitchen. Even though Ethan and Evan only picked at every thing, he enjoyed having them 'help'.

With Owen and Cristina as their parents they made sure to pick up where they left off education wise. Owen returned to his schedule of teaching the twins letters, numbers, shapes, colors and of course reading to them daily. Cristina took a break from sharing medical journals and various surgery videos. She needed a rest from hospitals and all the things that lingered in there. Her journey waiting for Owen to wake up took a lot out of her, so she joined him on his teachings. Although the same concept, they still taught differently. With shapes Owen showed them circles, squares, rectangles, ovals, kites and triangles. Cristina chose more complex shapes as hexagons, pentagons, octagons, parallelograms, and trapeziums. With numbers and colors it was the same, only Cristina could not fight the urge to explain which numbers were even and odd, and pointing out mixing certain colors to make another. Reading books were Ethan and Evan's favorite part. Once again Owen and Cristina differed here. Their father chose books with pictures while their mother chose books with only words, saying they held more detail and help the twins imagination. Ethan and Evan's brains were super soaker sponges and retained all that information with ease. In true Cristina fashion she of course took the credit for their quick progression.

Two months passed with zero medicine apart of the Hunts lives. Well Cristina would get frequent calls from Izzie, who was currently running the Cardio department. She would e-mail Cristina scans and get an opinion on course of treatment for patients, but other than that she was medicine free. Owen received no pages, no calls, and no e-mails from Alex, at least none involving medicine. The Chief gave strict orders to George and Alex about Owen. Before returning to medicine he needed to undergo test and take a few classes at the hospital to get back to the basics. It was a nice change, a break for that matter while it lasted.

With Family life appearing to be restored Cristina was deeply contemplating about heading back to work. She was eager to speak to Owen about it but always refrained. Since the accident and coma they did not speak about work or when they would return. Both of them avoided it.

Cristina finally decided she was ready to go back to work. She even went as far as letting the Chief know, and was scheduled immediately for tomorrow. Now all she had to do was talk to Owen about it.

"So I've been thinking about returning to work."

Owen smiled. He knew Cristina wanted to talk to him about something but as always he waited for her to bring it up.

"That's fine. Whenever you feel you're ready," Owen stated.

Cristina did not respond immediately. She was silent for a moment.

Cristina lifted her head from his chest and gazed into his eyes. "Yeah I'm ready."

He kissed the top of her forehead. "Okay. Give the Chief a call tomorrow morning."

Cristina nervously broke eye contact with Owen. "Actually, I'll be ready to go into work tomorrow morning."

Owen furrowed his brow. "What?"

"I'm scheduled tomorrow morning." She said quickly.

"You spoke with the Chief already?" Owen asked.

Cristina confessed. "Yes, on my way home from the market."

This time silence fell upon Owen before releasing, "Oh." It surprised him that Cristina did not discuss it with him. He would not have objected at all. It surprised him even more that she felt the need to call the Chief in secret on her run to the market today. Did she think I would get mad? That I would be jealous of her returning to work before me? Owen thought. Rather than press about the situation he let it go. Things were going well, and he was not about to disturb it.

Owen shook himself from his thoughts. "Well then. Let's get to sleep. You've got a busy day ahead of you."

For the first time in months familiar badgering sounds were released from the alarm clock.

Cristina immediately hit the snooze button and re-wrapped Owen's arm around her. He tightened his grip.

"You really should get up," he said in his raspy morning voice.

"Five more minutes," Cristina mumbled.

Owen chuckled at that statement. It made him relive moments before they had children, when the sound of the alarm clock would have Cristina jerking from her sleep, swiftly dressing and out the door within five minutes. Oh how much she's changed, he thought.

He patted her thigh. "Come on, get up. You don't want to be late on your first day back."

Cristina groaned in response for disturbing her comfy state.

"Come on," Owen repeated. "I'll get up with you and make you some breakfast."

"Okay, but only if you make stuffed French toast." she muttered. Owen laughed. As much as she's changed she's still the same he thought.

"Alright." Owen agreed and got up, taking the heavy comforter with him and made his way to the kitchen.

Cristina rolled over on her back. She yawned and stretched a few times before lazily separating from her bed. It had been quite a few months since she rose this early. Now that Ethan and Evan were bigger their mornings typically started at eight, rather than six.

The warm spray from the shower felt so relaxing, making Cristina want to linger in the shower for an eternity. With strong efforts she eventually detached from the massaging water and got dressed. Packing her familiar navy blue scrubs made her slightly nervous for her first day back. This time was different. The reason for her not being at work was different. Before thinking any more nervous thoughts the delicious and inviting smell of her favorite stuffed French toast stopped. "Mmmm," she said to herself and made her way to the kitchen.

Cristina was greeted with a plate of her favorite French toast stuffed with cream cheese and topped with strawberries. She immediately dived right into it with her fork. "Thanks baby," she said with her mouthful.

Owen retrieved his plate and took a seat beside Cristina. "Your welcome."

"So who is coming over today?"

Owen swallowed his bite. "Why does someone need to come over? The twins are big, they understand and listen. They're not infants anymore."

"I know that. It's just I thought with-"

Owen motioned with his hand to stop. "Cristina I'm fine. I don't need a baby sitter. I've been doing great for some time now. Don't do that, please."

Cristina took another bite. "Fine, but if you do need any help swallow your pride and pick of the phone."

Owen simply nodded and they ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.

"I'm gonna go kiss the kids goodbye and I'm gonna head out."

"Okay."

Cristina walked quickly to their bedroom but tip-toed once she was inside. She kissed Evan and Ethan's cheeks tenderly and gently ran her fingers through their hair as she whispered sweet "I love you's."

Owen met Cristina in the hallway where they shared a fervent kiss. "You sure you want to go back to work today? Owen asked when they finally pulled apart. Cristina smiled. "Yes, I'm sure."

When Cristina finally departed Owen gladly crawled back into bed and dozed off peacefully. His eyes jerked awake by the yelling coming through the baby monitors. It was about eight-thirty and Owen was well rested for the day that lay ahead.

Owen rounded up his twins from their room and let them know it was going to be just guys today. He made them their favorite apple cinnamon pancakes and feasted on a second breakfast. When all their bellies were stuffed he bathed Evan and Ethan, changed and headed out to the park. Since he was on his own today he thought it would be a good idea to start early on letting them run around and burn off some of their incalculable energy. Owen really worked out his arms pushing them both in the swings, his legs while chasing them around in the grass, and dirtied their clothes in the huge sandbox.

The twins and their dad returned home close to noon. To Owen's surprise they were greeted by George.

George waved his hand. "Hey Dr. Hunt."

"Hey O'Malley," Owen greeted as he walked up the drive way. "What brings you here?" He curiously asked, although he was pretty sure he already knew.

"I had the day off. So you know… just thought I'd drop by and see how you've been doing." George answered with a forced smile.

Owen nodded as he unlocked the front door and let George in. "Well, my answer is still the same when you asked me yesterday. I'm doing great. And O'Malley you're a terrible liar."

George sighed, he was a terrible liar. "Yeah Cristina made me."

"I thought so." Owen said shaking his head in amusement. "Well since you're here how about some lunch?"

"Sounds good." George answered.

While George kept Ethan and Evan company, Owen walked off to the kitchen and began preparing lunch. The phone rang as he placed four grilled cheese sandwiches on the griddle.

"Hello?"

"How are the kids?" Cristina asked through the phone.

"They're doing just fine. We actually just got back from the park." Owen answered.

"Sounds fun. And how are you doing?"

Owen smiled. "You don't want to wait for O'Malley to report back to you?"

Cristina remained quiet before Owen let out a laugh. "Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you're okay-"

"Cristina I told you I'm fine. Now stop worrying and bullying people into coming over here."

"Okay, Okay. I'll see you when I get home. Love you."

"Love you too, bye."

Over the next couple of days Cristina did not bother asking anyone to go check up on Owen. She was just a little worried. After all she had been there the moment he came out of the hospital and they had their routine down pat. It was recently disrupted with her going back to work and she wanted to make sure Owen was handing it well, so she called home or his cell every available minute she had. Eventually that subsided too.

Another two weeks passed and Owen felt he was ready to take the necessary steps to take back over his trauma department. He missed the shifts down in the ER. He talked to Cristina about it and she was more than understanding and supportive of his decision. Within the days to follow Owen found himself in basic suture classes with nervous interns. He passed that, and other test and classes that followed. After a talk with the Chief and a couple of tests, Derek cleared Owen for surgery and announced he was more than capable of coming back to work.

Owen's first day back at work was an excited one. It was filled with a lot of patients and surgeries. The best part of it, he saved all of them. He was readjusting well to being back at the hospital, Ethan and Evan however, not quite so much. They had fallen comfortably into the routine of being home with both or one parent. The familiar care takers of the daycare were greeted by saddened faces and eyes full of tears. The twins were far from happy campers in daycare. No toys, or songs could cheer them up, not until their mommy and daddy picked them at the end of their shifts.

The difficulties Evan and Ethan endured lasted about a week. After their week tantrum they once again became comfortable with the hospital routine. Their days were brightened whenever they got visits from their parents. Whether Cristina or Owen were there to have a lunch, teach, or play they cherished and held on to them to the very last second. Cristina even returned to sharing medical stories from her shifts. The twins were deeply attached to their parents and it intensified as when they reached the age of two and a half.

With Owen and Cristina's repetitive teachings, Ethan and Evan progressed rather quickly. They transformed into tenacious, intelligent, chatty three year olds.

As their parents walked to the hospital's daycare after a long day they would soon add mischievous to the list with the stories the sitters were about to spill.


	17. Chapter 17

During the two years that passed Ethan and Evan amplified in all aspects of development, beyond any expectations. One to two word reactions and answers turned to full on fathomable sentences. Walking turned to running and was soon accompanied by climbing. Due to their parents' repetitive teachings, counting went beyond one through ten, now able to count by two's, four's and five's. They were showing great understanding to recent teachings of adding and subtracting, Cristina of course throwing in a little multiplication. She wanted them to be prepared as possible by the time they entered school. Their second birthday was a little difficult for Cristina. It brought back the memory of Owen's accident, his coma and the difficult wait for him to wake up. With the loving and great husband Owen was, he pulled Cristina out of her slump by the time their party started. It went as perfectly as planned, as it could ever go, and when their third birthday came around it was just as successful.

Home life grew more exciting and a little tiring with Ethan and Evan's added limitless energy. Their make believe adventures continued, but now lasted hours, and ventured outside. Like any toddler, Ethan and Evan got into their share of mischief and trouble. More often than not Cristina and Owen would argue about disciplinary actions. Cristina always gave into their puppy dog eyes, and forgave them easily when they uttered the worlds cutest sorry. Owen on the other hand did not budge, giving them lectures and taking away their favorite toys or movies temporarily. Now with their imaginations reaching new heights, their 'adventures' were starting to take place on hospital grounds.

Ethan and Evan continued to watch Cristina's surgery videos. The sight of blood and organs did not make their stomachs' queasy. Instead it intrigued them and asked as many questions as possible. When both parents worked, they begged them in attempts to avoid daycare. They longed to watch their parents in action, and offer their own advice on what to do. Now that they were older they only got glimpses of surgeries. Their eyes caught sight of instruments and equipment that were not in Cristina's medical videos and their brains were itching to find out exactly what they were and their purpose.

That is what sparked their latest mischievous ways and as always Owen was not pleased as the caretakers informed them.

The twins instantly knew they were in trouble, so they allowed their father to walk ahead of them and stayed close to their mommy.

Owen kept sighing and looking back at his sons. He finally stopped to let Cristina and the twins catch up with him.

He shook his head in frustration. "I cannot believe you guys have been sneaking out of daycare."

Ethan and Evan apologized. "Sorry."

Cristina turned her head to smile. The way they said it, the way it sounded was beyond cute. Then she spoke.

"Okay, well just don't do again, okay guy? It's not safe."

The twins smiled, thinking they got off easy. "Okay mommy." Before they could begin trotting away in happiness their father interrupted.

"That's it? 'Don't do it again?' " Owen asked, giving Cristina a confused looked.

"Owen not here. They're three olds. They're just curious." Cristina answered.

Owen took in a deep breath and decided to save his conversation for inside the car.

Once everyone was buckled up he finally vented. He turned around in the driver's seat and gave Ethan and Evan an intense glare.

"Now listen up. No more watching mommy's medical videos. No more staying up late to watch cartoon movies. No more make believe adventures. Nothing until you show me you can behave." He said it in a sternly manner that had Ethan and Evan nodding silently,as they understood. They briefly looked to their mother for comfort but this time all she could do was shake her head.

As Owen began driving home Evan mustered the courage to ask a question.

"Can we still-"

"No." Owen stated before he could fully ask his question.

Evan merely sighed an adorable sigh and fell into silence once more. That silence continued at home and all through dinner. When it came time for the twins to say their good nights they hesitated with their father.

"Hey get over here." Owen stated as they were making their way towards their bed room. When they were close enough Owen engulfed them in tight hugs and planted soft kisses on their foreheads. They smiled and returned the hug.

"Guys, I'm only hard on you because it's not safe to sneak out of daycare and wander around the hospital. There are crazy people out there who can snatch you and take you away. Now we don't want that do we?"

The twins shook there heads no.

"Alright then. So tomorrow while you spend the day at the nurses' station, promise me you'll be good?"

"We promise." Ethan said. Evan nodded his head yes and smiled.

Owen sighed. They knew just how to melt his heart. He carried each one of them over his shoulder and read them _Where The Wild Things_ _Are_ as they drifted off to sleep.

When he finally made it to his bedroom Cristina was already wrapped up in the covers dozing off. The minute he snaked his strong arms around her she woke up fully.

"Hey," she whispered.

Owen kissed her cheek. "Hey."

"So are you on good terms with the boys yet?

Owen furrowed his brow. "Shouldn't they be the ones trying to get back on good terms with me? They are the ones who got in trouble today, remember?"

Cristina chuckled. It was true.

Owen shook his head, feeling a little frustrated and amused. "You need to jump on board with some discipline. Remember how hard you used to be on the interns? A little of that wouldn't hurt. I can't always be the one who looks like the bad guy. I could use your support in punishment Cristina."

Cristina turned on her back to look at Owen. "Okay, okay. It's just hard. They get me every time."

Owen smiled. "Well, they were graced with my good looks so I understand." All Cristina could do was laugh.

- - - - - -

The next morning Owen found himself speaking with a pair of nurses who stayed firmly planted at the desk closest to the ER and Cardio wing. Cristina did not join him, her and nurses will forever remain divided. Owen put on his best charm and eventually got them to look after them. After all these years nurses, even the new ones still swooned over him.

As Owen continued to speak, giving instructions about snacks and lunch time Ethan interjected.

"Careful lady. He's a married spud," he said to the blonde nurse, who was practically drooling. Her cheeks instantly turned bright red and averted her eyes.

Owen glared at his son and continued before kissing them goodbye. "Be good, _please_."

As always Cristina and Owen's day was filled with a number of patients. Surgeries kept them busy. Only this time they both constantly kept an eye out while wander the halls of the hospital in search of any pair of red-headed mischievous twins.

Cristina was the first to visit Ethan and Evan at the nurses' station. Aside from her sons, she did not enjoy the surrounding company. As usual she shared her intriguing stories from the OR and Ethan and Evan's ears were perked up the whole time, theirs brains swallowing all the details and information. When she ran out of stories the twins showed her the pictures they drew.

"Oh wow, how cool are those." Cristina said with a smile. "Some masterpieces you got there."

"Like pecoso?" They both asked.

"Definitely." Cristina said.

The nearby nurses looked confused. "Pecoso?"

Cristina hesitantly turned the nurses. "Picasso," she informed them before turning away.

"Mommy, mommy, wanna hear our music masterpiece?"

"You know it." Cristina said with excitement.

Ethan brought out his xylophone and Evan brought out his muppet babies keyboard. They both pounded their instruments, creating noises that only sounded beautiful to their parents' ears. When they finished Cristina applauded.

They both set down their instruments and bowed. "T'ank you," they said.

"You guys are definitely going to be up there with Mozart."

This brightened their eyes. "Even with Baytoben?"

The nurses heard this word and again asked. "Who?"

"They mean Beethoven." Cristina answered once again. "Oh," were their only replied.

"Dad sure did pick some uncultured swines to watch us," Evan stated. The nurses were shocked to her those words escape the mouth of a three year old.

"Excuse me? Did he just call me a swine?" The blonde haired nurse asked, feeling quite offended.

Cristina was doing her best to fight back her laughter. After a moment or two she managed to suppress it. She remembered her conversation with Owen and needed to show some discipline.

"Evan, go apologize this instance. That's a very rude and mean thing say."

Evan and Ethan were surprised. Cristina rarely ever made them apologize or get angry with them, that was Owen's job in their mind. The looks on their mom's face meant she meant business, so Evan immediately went to apologize to the nurse. The twins possessed the same charm and piercing eyes as their father and the nurse immediately forgave him.

"Alright boys, give me big hugs. Lunch time is over."

They both went running to Cristina and hugged her tightly. "I'll see you in a bit. Your dad should be getting here in a little bit. And remember to be good."

They nodded and kissed their mom goodbye.

One of Owen's surgeries ran a little long, causing him to have a late lunch. He scurried off to the nurses' station, rounded up his little hunts and made his way to the cafeteria. They plopped down at a table in the corner and dived right into their turkey and cheese sandwiches.

"Yummy," Ethan stated as he chewed a bite of his sandwich.

"Not as yummy as mommy's." Evan corrected.

"Got that right," Owen added. "So tell me about your day. Nurses' station better than daycare?"

Both boys shook their heads no. "It's so boring there." Ethan complained.

"Yeah. They're both uncultured swines." Evan added. Hearing those words made Owen choke on a piece of his sandwich.

Through coughs he managed to ask, "Wha-wha-what?"

"Uncultured swines. It's true, they didn't even know pecoso or baytoben." Ethan stated.

Owen shook his head and wondered where exactly his twins learned these words. Before he could ask, his thoughts were drowned out by loud and quirky interns. One was reading a set a flash cards and each of them trying to guess the diagnosis or disease. It caught the attention of Ethan and Evan and they both listened intently to the words. They began to laugh as the interns kept guessing wrong. Finally Ethan could take no more.

He yelled from his chair, "Did you all swallow a stupid pill this morning? Its valbular heart disease."

The interns were shocked, and were on the verge of saying something back to the smart mouthed kid but refrained when they saw who they sitting with. Instead they ignored the twins and went back their lunch.

Owen could not believe his ears. "Hey, what is with the smart remarks? Stupid pills? Swine? Those are not appropriate words for three year olds. I don't ever want to hear you say anything like that again. It's rude and very un-polite. I didn't raise you with such awful manners."

The twins bowed their heads and continued to eat their sandwiches in silence.

"And it's valvular." Owen corrected with a smile. Cristina was right; it was difficult to stay upset with them.

- - - - - -

When their shifts finally ended, Cristina and Owen walked hand in hand to the nurses' station. They scooped up their sleepy children and made their way to the car.

As Cristina started the engine Owen asked. "Did you know our sons say things like uncultured swine, and asking if people swallowed stupid pills?"

Cristina laughed. "Yes, I found that out during my lunch break with them. I told them not to say things like that."

"Where do you think they learned that?

"What? It wasn't me. I don't say that. Although I don't mind stealing those words for some interns."

"Come on Cristina, where else would they learn that?"

Cristina was slight taken back. "How could you think that? I didn't teach them that."

"Okay, so where did they learn that?"

Their voices must have become slightly louder because now the twins were awake.

"Toy Story," Evan mumbled.

"Huh?" Owen asked as he turned herself to face them in the back seat.

"We got it from Toy Story."

"They say that?" Owen was shocked. In all the times they saw that movie together as a family he never noticed.

"Well those words are not a polite thing to say." Cristina informed them.

"Or appropriate for little boys your age." Owen added.

"Then why are they saying them in a cartoon movie?" Ethan asked.

This questions stumped Cristina and Owen. What kind of children's movie did say things like that. It was a good point.

"Good question, "Owen finally said. "No more watching that movie."

The twins gasped. It was their all-time favorite movie.

"Well not all the time, anyway."

- - - - - -

Life continued this way. Ethan and Evan would learn new inappropriate words through TV and overheard conversations at the hospital. They knew they could not guard them from it, and would eventually learn those words; all they could do was simply teach them it was wrong to use.

Owen eventually got the twins back into daycare, and they stopped trying to bust out when Cristina compromised with them. She promised two days out of their working week they could watch one of hers or Owen's surgeries.

However as months and another year passed Ethan and Evan began watching every surgery. Daycare was no longer an option. The twins were too intrigued by every item in the hospital. They thought x-ray scans were one of the coolest things ever. They saw the MRI and CT machines as awesome spaceships.

Rather than get frustrated or upset with their sons' curiosity and mischief, they laughed and once again explained and did their best to show them all the equipment to calm their eagerness.

Shortly after their fourth birthday, Owen decided to make a decision that surprised Cristina but brought great joy to Ethan and Evan.


	18. Chapter 18

_A/N: Short chapter, but the final two are going to be longer. Anyhow read, review and hopefully enjoy ;)_

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For Owen and Cristina it had been a typical day at the hospital; busy. It ran long and was relatively exhausting, but that was nothing new. What was new was the news Owen received from the Chief today. He had just finished having lunch with Cristina and the twins when the Chief paged him to his office. He initially thought it was about a high profile surgery that was going to make the press swoon over Seattle Grace, but he was wrong. For the second time in Dr. Webber's career, he spoke with the board and announced his retirement. This time there was no hesitation, nothing to reconsider, he was finally going through with it, and he was asking Owen to take his chair. Immediately Owen was shocked, not because of his ability as a surgeon or capabilities to take over as Chief but because Dr. Webber kept it under wraps as long as he did without it leaking its way into the hospital gossip mill. Owen was silent for a few minutes, contemplating in his head and finally gave the Chief his answer.

When the day was finally coming to a close Owen was more than delighted. He quickly made his way to his office, changed into his civvies, and caught an empty elevator to ride to the second floor to meet Cristina at their usual spot; the second floor nurses' station. As he approached an already waiting Cristina and twin boys he was going over in his mind how to tell her about what transpired in the Chief's office today. He hoped she would not be upset for not consulting with her first. He immediately captured her lips, kissing her tenderly, and then turned his attention to his sons. This was his favorite part of the day, his favorite thing to wind down to; his family.

The ride home was a quite one. Cristina was comfortable situated in the passenger seat, her head resting gently against the headrest. She was slowly falling asleep to the voices of Ethan and Evan, who were reading books they received for their fourth birthday. As he witnessed this he decided he would wait to bring up the news at home.

When they arrived home Owen changed into comfortably clothes and made his way to the kitchen. He was going to make pasta with chicken in carbonara sauce, and the twins decided to read on the stools in the kitchen to keep him company. Cristina went off to take a much needed relaxing shower before dinner.

Fifteen minutes later Cristina joined the male hunts in the kitchen.

She inhaled the scents that were brewing from the kitchen. "Mmm, smells delicious."

"Hey mommy." Ethan and Evan greeted without looking up from their books.

"Hey boys. How's the books."

They answered in unison once more, "Awesome."

Cristina just smiled as she took a seat beside them and watched Owen. She noticed he was missing an ingredient for the sauce so she went to the fridge to retrieve it for him.

"Here ya go," she said, handing him the cream.

Ethan finally pried his eyes from the words of his book. "Hold off on the cream."

"Yeah, we like the traditional way. Just with the egg yolks. Sorry mom." Evan added as he at last placed down his book.

Owen grinned. "Sorry mom, it's three against one."

Cristina laughed. "Fine."

As Owen was plating everyone's meal he decided now was a good as time as ever.

"The Chief called me in today to talk. After lunch," he blurted out.

"Oh yeah? What did he want?" Cristina asked as she received her plate of pasta.

"Well," Owen began. "He told me he was retiring."

Those words really got Cristina's attention and she a good feeling what Owen was going to say next.

"Yeah, and?" Cristina asked more eagerly.

"He said he was retiring and he would be happy if I took his chair b-"

"Oh my God. This is great news. Why did you wait so long to tell me?" Cristina was elated. Her eyes grew wide and full of excitement. She was so proud of her husband. He was going to be Chief.

"Well Cris-"

"This is actually perfect timing. Ethan and Evan are going to be starting pre-school soon, and kindergarten to follow."

Hearing the words pre-school did not sit well with Ethan and Evan. If they had it their way, of course they would choose to be with their parents at work.

"Cristina there's more-"

Once again he was cut off by an ecstatic Cristina. "We need to celebrate. This is amazing news. You're going to be Chief!"

Becoming a little annoyed he finally spoke more firmly. "Cristina, I am not going to be Chief."

Cristina's bubble of excitement was popped by those words. She furrowed her brows in confusion. "What? Why not? You just said the Chief was ret-"

"Yes, he is retiring and he asked me to take his chair but I declined."

Cristina gave Owen a look of disbelief. Is he kidding, she thought. "Why on earth would you do that?"

Owen sighed. "Cristina, you of all people should know that I never intended or planned on becoming Chief of Surgery. I'm sure other surgeons want to but I don't. Too much paperwork, and worse too much time away from the family."

"Well I'm glad you didn't take the job dad." Ethan jumped in before Cristina could respond.

"Yeah, me too dad. We're glad you didn't. The Chief is really crabby. We don't want you to turn crabby too." Evan added.

Their honest opinions brought a chuckle to Owen and a smile that Cristina fought hard to hold back.

"Thanks boy." He said winking at them.

Cristina finally got over her initial shock and spoke again. "Well, if that's what you want. It's fine and I support you with your decision."

Owen bit his bottom lip nervously. Now he praying this newly understanding Cristina that emerged would stick around as he dropped yet another bomb.

"There's something else. Something else I spoke to the Chief about."

Not only Cristina's but Ethan and Evan also stopped chewing and gave Owen their full attention. It made him a little nervous to have all eyes and ears on him and his voice. He cleared his throat and tugged at the color of his shirt.

"Well," he began.


	19. Chapter 19

Owen paused to clear his throat once more.

Cristina was becoming more anxious, curious to find out what other surprise announcements he had hiding. "Spit it out already," she demanded.

Owen spoke quickly. "I told the Chief I want to retire as Head of Trauma." He squinted as he finished as though he was expecting to get hit.

Cristina was completely flabbergasted. This was the last thing she was expecting. It caught her off guard.

"What did you say?" She asked as the calm and understanding Cristina retreated.

Owen took in a breath. "I'm retiring."

"Retire?" She asked in a mere whisper.

"Retire?!?" The twins asked in great excitement.

"Yeah," Owen mustered out.

While silence fell upon Cristina, Ethan and Evan took this opportunity to bombard their father with questions. They asked if this meant if he was going to be home all the time, if they were still going to visit their mom at the hospital, and of course if this meant more time for playing. They were mostly excited about the possible extinction of a babysitter.

Cristina's stunned state eventually subsided. Owen and the twins' chit-chat were now becoming more audible to her ears.

She cut in. "You're retiring? Why?"

"Cristina, I just feel like it's time. I've accomplished a lot as a surgeon, made my contribution to medicine. It's time. I want to focus on our family, fully." Owen explained.

Cristina folded her arms. "This is all really sudden. When did you start thinking of retiring? You could have spoke to me about this so I could at least be prepared. It's a shock."

"Well, it was a sudden decision for me. The Chief said some things that really made me lean towards retirement. He talked about how it was time to start paying attention to his home life. Being Chief would keep me away from home, whether Ethan and Evan are in school or not. Being a Trauma surgeon and having our amazing family is tough as it is. This is something I want to do Cristina."

Cristina took a couple minutes to take everything in, every word that left his mouth. She was not upset that he wanted to retire, no that was a lie, she was a little, but it was just very sudden. He always discussed everything and anything with her, even simple things that did not even require her knowing. She wished he would have spoke to her about it. Actually, she always pictured them retiring together, going out with a bang.

Owen approached Cristina placing his hands on her hips.

"I could use your support," He said earnestly.

Cristina gazed into bright blue eyes. "You have it," she said with a faint smile. "Let's eat before our food gets cold." With the twins in their presence she did not want to argue, but she did give him her full support. This news, this sudden news just simple sent springs shockwaves through her.

They took seats next to Evan and Ethan and ate in silence for the rest of the evening.

When the twins were finally down for the night Owen decided to take a lengthy shower. During that time Cristina snuggled comfortably in her pillows and blankets, thinking hard about Owen and his abrupt announcement of retirement. She sank deep into her thoughts contemplating on whether or not she could talk him out of it, but quickly discarded that idea when she remembered she said she supported him. She wondered what he would do for money, not that they would go broke or that he didn't have any saved up but it would only last for so long. In the long haul, how would he handle being the quote, housewife, or Cristina being the primary source of income? All those thoughts and some whirled around in her head.

"Cristina," Owen said softly as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him.

"Hey," she answered, bringing herself afloat from her thoughts.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Nothing, just thinking is all."

"Cristina I know this is sudden, but things will be fine. I am really sure about this."

Cristina broke from his embrace to sit up against their headboard. "What are you going to do for money?"

"I'm going to get my old band together and play on the docks near the ferryboats for spare change." He took a moment to chuckle before continuing. "Cristina, I've hardly ever spent any money. Our cars are paid off, so is this house. The money I received from while in the military I saved every penny. I've never spent frivolously and there is more than enough put away for Ethan and Evan to go to college. Money is not the issue and you know it. So tell me what is really bothering you about this."

"I'm going to miss you," she uttered out. "I'm going to miss our morning coffee at the hospital. I'm going to miss scrubbing in on your surgeries. I'm going to miss seeing you in those navy blue scrubs. It's going to be so different not having you there at the hospital. You're not going to be a doctor anymore."

Owen grinned. "Well, I can play doctor at home with you."

Cristina laughed and pushed him away. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm being serious here."

"Me and the boys will come visit you everyday and we'll have that crappy cafeteria food with you for lunch."

"Promise?" Cristina asked, smiling now.

Owen motioned for her to lie back down, this time on his chest. "I promise."

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The next day Owen made it official to the Chief and the rest of the staff on hand. Two weeks from today he would officially retire his title as Head of Trauma by handing in his letter of resignation. News of this and of the Chief's own retirement traveled faster than the speed of light. Saying the hospital was in a buzz would have possibly been the understatement of the year. Everywhere Cristina or Owen passed by someone was talking about the double retirements that were to take place with in the weeks to come.

With Owen preparing to hang up his scrubs and stethoscope Alex and George were doing their share of showboating around him. Both making sure they were on time, at the ready, and on point. Owen found it quite amusing, but hoped that whoever would take over as the new head of trauma would keep up that tempo of work ethic up. There was no time to rest on your laurels, or sit down comfortably for even the briefest of moments in trauma.

Cristina disliked slow days. If it was slow it meant she was not particularly busy, and she loved busy. Being busy meant surgery. It's what she craved the most in the hospital, but not today. Today, and the rest of the days leading up to Owen's final second of work she wanted to pass by unhurriedly, to crawl along as slow as a slug. No matter how much he assured her, and all the promises of frequent visits with the twins, Cristina could not be prepared for his retirement.

During each surgery Cristina noticed she commenced in lingering a little longer, double checking valves, ventricles, cuts and sutures. She stayed a little longer in patient's rooms, adding extra details to the surgery she was about to perform or one she recently finished up, which surprised many because she was not known for her beside manner or social skills. All in hopes of making the days last longer. When it was surgery with Owen she watched him more intently. She examined every hand movement, esteemed by the sight of the way his hand steadied the blade to make precision cuts. She scanned his face and admired the way he stayed focus, calm, and assertive. In her eyes his quick thinking and precise decisions needed much glorification. It dawned on her that she would never witness any of this again. It made her appreciate each step of his surgeries, his demeanor as a doctor, and work ethic much more. Aside from her favorite cardio doctors, Owen was one doctor she put up there with the absolute utmost. She would miss him as a doctor.

Family time at the hospital would be missed as well. With Owen soon to become a regular visitor in the hospital he would no longer be allowed in certain parts of the hospital, or galleries to the OR. He would no longer be apart of the 'special' authorized personnel. This unfortunately meant Ethan and Evan would not be able to watch her surgeries, unless a member of the hospital staff escorted and hosted their time in the gallery. Cristina found herself cherishing their family moments at the hospital, everything from showing them hospital equipment, allowing them to press the button to send their dad into the MRI machine, to sneaking them into the skills lab to show them basic procedures their eyes yearned to see, and brains itched to fathom.

In Cristina's time zone, Owen's last day of work materialized too quickly. The dreadful retirement day started out quiet, literally. All were saddened by the thought of losing their father they called Chief and the best Trauma surgeon to ever appear at Seattle Grace Hospital all in one day. The silence that fell upon the hospital quickly led to one thing that followed a quiet day; massive incoming Traumas. How fitting that on Owen's last day he would perform multiple complex surgeries, all showing casing his brilliant medical knowledge and immaculate surgical skills, once again showing all staff on hand exactly what they were saying goodbye to.

By late afternoon the sandstorms of the day's traumas settled immensely. Owen took the rare opportunity and scooped up Ethan and Evan from their caretaker and embarked on one last adventure, as the twins called it. When their doctor and space games ended Owen caught sight of the OR board and decided to watch for the final time one of his wife's surgeries. While Cristina flawless repaired a tear in the aorta of a heart she glanced up to see three sets of bright blue eyes watching her closely. She smiled, cherishing the moment. She did her best to smile, but it saddened her that tomorrow one of those pair of eyes, if not all would be absent. When she finished up, and scrubbed out it was her three favorite people waiting for her on the other side of the door. Ethan and Evan jumped into their mom's arms.

"Wow mom you really rocked that surgery," Evan said in amazement.

Ethan agreed. "Yeah mom, you rock. My favorite part is when you used the saw, and cracked open the chest, and then wow there it is, the heart. So cool."

Before Owen could add to the conversation his pager went off. Another trauma was rolling into the pit, so he said goodbye and ran off to his patient. Not so much a shocker that he ended up back in the OR, with Cristina and the twins watching above. It was an intense surgery, more complex and difficult than the ones that transpired from the morning. As usual, he kept his cool, took action quickly, made on the spot decisions. Ethan and Evan were standing; switching seats from side to side, occasionally biting their nails in suspense of what was going to happen next. It was as though they were watching an exciting playoff game. Most people would look at these children quizzically, but knowing their parents were Cristina Yang and Owen Hunt they were not surprised that they were enthralled by medicine and surgery also.

Owen definitely ended his final work day with a bang. He said his goodbyes to nearly all the staff members that included nurses, interns, residents and fellow attendings. Most of the senior nurses fought to hold back tears, he was one of the few doctors who understood and respected the hard work they did, and always recognized they knew more, and did more than change bed pans or fluff pillows.

All in all the day ended fairly well. Owen was replaced as Head of Trauma with George O'Malley, and Dr. Webber was replaced as Chief of Surgery by the one and only Derek Shepherd. There was no doubt in Owen's mind that he would miss being a surgeon, operating, saving lives, but he was more than confident and content with Ethan and Evan filling that void.

Cristina fell asleep thinking about tomorrow. Tomorrow she would drive a lonely ride to the hospital without Owen caressing her hand, or hearing the back and forth banter between Ethan and Evan in the back seat. She had fallen comfortable into that routine, and all of that was gone now. It would take time to get used to.

The next day, Cristina reluctantly left home and journeyed her way to the hospital where no Owen and no twins would be, at least until lunch time. Instead of sharing morning coffee with Owen, it was her with her friends.

"So Owen begins his first day as a housewife," Alex teased.

"If Owen finds out you called him a housewife, he's going to kick your ass," Meredith stated.

Alex laughed, "I was a wrestler, I can take him."

Cristina snorted. "Your little boy wrestling skills are nothing compared to military training. And he's not a housewife idiot."

"Well what do you call it? He stays home and takes care of the kids now. Sounds like a housewife to me." Alex was still pissed he did not get the position of Head of Trauma. Even though Owen told him he recommended him to take his place, he said Derek chose to go another route.

"Whatever. I bring home the bacon and he fries it. Nothing wrong with that." Cristina took a sip of her coffee and swallowed. "Besides he's coming for lunch today, I'll let him explain to you how much of a housewife he's NOT."

Alex went silent and an expression that said 'oh shit' formed on his face. They all laughed, but before any more banter could continue the sound of their pagers detached them from their social gathering.

Work was normal. It was different not seeing her little ones watch her surgeries, or go and visit them during any spare moments she had or breaks. This would definitively take some getting used to, but much to her delight lunch approached rather quickly and as promised Owen was waiting in the lobby with the twins.

Lunch was spent in the hospital's cafeteria, Ethan, Evan and their father devouring moderate ham and cheese sandwiches, while Cristina enjoyed a spinach salad. When their bellies were full they each shared details of their days that one another missed out on. Owen heard about the comment Alex made, and even went over to his table to approach him and joke around, but Alex scurried off saying he had a thing. It caused Cristina to erupt in laughter.

When Cristina arrived at home it was different and weird to already have her twins and husband awaiting her. Although she missed them dearly at work, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She saw tomorrow differently, and thought how this routine would not take long to get used to after all. Her night was spent with Owen giving her a taste of what playing doctor at home was like. The next morning she appreciated his doctor 'skills' at home.

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_A/N: Thanks for all the reviews; I'm glad you are enjoying the story. Only one more chapter, maybe two and this fic will come to a close. Thanks for reading. :)_


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's note: **This chapter was Beta'd by the wonderful and talented **Shli.** All improvements in my writing go to her. Please take the time to read and review her work as well, it's awesome! Thanks a bunch and I hope all of you enjoy. The final chapter is on its way. Take care :)

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Owen's retirement was big, and although manageable, it still took Cristina an extended amount of time to become completely comfortable with the new changes in her life. It certainly helped that Owen kept his promise and was there with Ethan and Evan every day at work for her lunch hour. At times, he would allow them to stay to watch one of their mother's surgeries while he ran errands. She still missed seeing them every other available minute, but the positive side was that it allowed her to return to her vigorous research she'd placed on the back burner so long ago. Lately she was on the verge of making a worldwide discovery, a new method in cardiac surgery. Recently she found herself doing double the research, spending more time experimenting and practicing on cadavers. She even brought studies home from work and started spending more hours researching on her days off. It was fine by her male Hunts: they were happy for her, excited that she was on the verge of changing an aspect of medicine and making a mark in the cardio world. With Owen being a former doctor, he also had some interesting and insightful information to offer. Life was turning out to be just fine with her newly retired husband.

With the help of the twins Owen adjusted well to permanent home life. It only took a week to fall into a daily routine, which kept him busy throughout. He had a lot to teach, and the twins were willing students.

During their mornings and evenings, Owen would act as a culinary teacher. He taught them the importance of washing one's hands before and after handling food. He strongly instilled in them the importance of always letting the adults handle the knives, and the dangers it could cause if they were not. He explained, in as much detail as possible, what to do in case a fire should break out and the importance of oven mitts. Finally with food, he gave up all his best secrets. He would go over every step in creating the ideal consistency of batter for pancakes and waffles. Ethan and Evan were surprised to find the key to getting the perfect fluff in scrambled eggs was to whisk quickly and add milk. During dinner courses, he expressed the importance of marinating for prolonged hours for maximum flavor. They learned about the approximate temperature at which different meats, poultry and fish should be cooked. With pastas, they learned the difference between al dente and mushy. But most importantly, he shared healthy nutrition facts.

Owen also made sure Ethan and Evan remained active. Since they'd recently ditched coloring, building blocks, and make believe games Owen saw this as an opportunity to inform them about sports: hockey, football, and baseball – the only three sports a Hunt should care about. Of course being a native to Seattle, he spoke nothing but greatness of the Thunderbirds, Seahawks, and Mariners. Teaching the twins simple plays and fundamentals about baseball and football posed to be rather simple due to the enormous backyard the house held. With football, Owen attempted to teach them how to throw the perfect spiral, noting the importantance of placing the ring and pinky fingers in the proper laces. It turned out to be quite comical when they attempted to run perfect laterals and a series of jukes to trick the imaginary defense. When the talk of tackling came up, the curious Ethan and Evan wasted no time on each other; but Owen soon had to bring it a halt when one scraped his elbow and the other scraped his chin. Rather than cry, the twins saw it as cool "battle" scars that would showcase their toughness. Owen essentially taught them the x's and o's of football. Baseball started out as regular catch; throwing a baseball around with baseball gloves. But like any good parent, safety came first, so Owen purchased foam baseball bats to hit the balls. He taught them how to pitch, the different ways to hold the ball, and how placing one's fingers on different spots could affect the spin of the ball. With hockey, Owen simply showed them through the television: he felt it would be a safe way without actual hockey sticks. He promised to take them to a game when the season started up again, noting it would have to be on one of Cristina's days off. He remembered how tough it was when they'd missed out on the twins' milestones; and now that he could decide when their first baseball, football and hockey games occurred, he would make sure Cristina would be present to experience it.

Being musically inclined as a child, Owen wasted no time in teaching them how to play the electric guitar and drums. With the twins being their usual selves, they wanted to obtain every possible piece of information about these instruments. So with the drums, before any sticks could touch the surface, he taught them about the different type of drums. He started with bass drum explaining how this particular drum would involve a foot petal. He informed them of the snare drum and how it would be played with their non-dominate hand. The cymbals took awhile to explain because of the various different types which included; the high-hat, ride, splash, and the crash, but Ethan and Evan were more than satisfied with every detail their father was willing to share. The electric guitar was their favorite. Even though they were not quite suitable for children, Owen played a couple of Hendrix and Van Halen songs so that the twins could hear the great sounds an electric guitar can make. He showed them that by pressing down on a certain spot on the strings would make a different sound. He promised he would get them their own matching pair of Fender electric guitars and that they could all jam some simple chord melodies one day.

Aside from all the fun, Owen made sure to add a few hours of teachings that would prepare them for school. Ethan and Evan were far beyond the other kindergarteners, and their parents knew they would not stay in there for long. Simple addition and subtract were calculated easily in their heads. However, double digit numbers still required a paper and pencil or the use of their fingers - as with multiplication and division. Spelling and reading were becoming quite easy for the twins; they understood and caught on so quickly that Owen was convinced that they'd be reading small chapter books by five. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives posed no difficulty; and Owen was forced to up his game by introducing pronouns, preposition and conjunctions. Ethan and Evan often surprised their parents; it was as though they were little geniuses. Owen skipped science: what with all the time they spent in the hospital, he was confident that they would succeed just fine in that area of school.

Cristina also fell into teacher mode on her days off when taking a much needed break from research. She knew nothing of sports, and played no instruments; but she was a formidable chess player and a damn good poker player. With no hesitation, she began teaching them the names and purpose of each chess piece, followed by the possible moves each one could make. Owen teased her, saying that was a game for geeks, but Cristina retorted back that it was excellent for mental training and strategic thinking. During their hour-long games of poker she taught them how to hold a steady poker face and the different possible hands: a pair, two pair, three of a kind, four of a kind, straight, flush, full house, and royal flush.

The twins kept Owen busy. He loved teaching them and the twins loved learning. It was as though their brain capacity of holding information was limitless, and Owen was extremely proud and impressed. The minute the twins expressed to him what they wanted from school Owen decided to opt out of sending them to pre-school. Ethan and Evan made good points: They gathered up all of the brochures from different pre-schools in the area that all promised a day of coloring, cutting out silly shapes, and playing with building blocks - all of which they had had outgrown a long time ago. With one parent on board, the next step was to convince Cristina, who had seemed adamant about sending the twins to pre-school. So one afternoon, while Cristina was drying dishing that piled up during lunch Owen brought it up.

He casually approached Cristina from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and nestling his face on the side of her neck, planting a kiss.

"Hey," he whispered.

Cristina knew this approach all too well. She finished drying the dish, set it down and turned to face her husband.

"Hey," she answered. She looked into his eyes and gave him a facial expression that said "on with it."

Owen retracted his arms and grinned. "What?"

"Oh come on. I know you all too well. What is it that you wanna talk about?"

Owen chuckled. She did know him too well. "Well," he began, taking a moment to glance at the twins who were paying close attention. "I think we should opt out on sending Ethan and Evan to pre-school."

Cristina immediately turned to face the twins, who quickly averted their eyes. "Gee, I wonder whose idea that was."

Ethan and Evan's response were mere giggles.

"Come on, Cristina, jump on board. I saw those brochures. Sending them for a day of coloring and finger painting is a waste of time, and you know it. I'm turning out to be an excellent teacher if you hadn't noticed."

Cristina returned her attention to Owen. "Pre-school will better prepare them for kindergarten. They'll be interacting with other children, allowing them to become more sociable. And-"

Owen cut her off. "Cristina, have you not noticed how sociable our boys are? They talk to everybody about everything and anything. Pre-school is not going to teach them anything new, and you know how much they crave to learn new things."

Cristina folded her arms and sighed. He did have a point there, but she was not going to cave in just yet.

"That may be true but all statistics show that children who go to pre-school are more likely to graduate high school and go on to college."

Owen cocked his head to the side, as if to say are "you kidding me."

"Since when do statistics mean anything? You and I never went to pre-school; and we not only graduated high school, but went to college and became successful doctors."

Cristina took a deep breath and took a moment to think. She looked at Owen, who was nodding for her to say yes. She rolled her eyes at him and turned to her boys. They met her stare and clasped their hands together pleading with her in their adorable manner that always got her. "Fine," she breathed out.

Owen and the twins erupted in cheers.

"Yes!" Ethan and Evan yelled in unison. "You're the coolest, mom."

"Yeah yeah," Cristina answered shaking her head as she smiled.

Now that he got her to agree on this, he felt that this moment was as good as any other to bring up something else. For the past three months as Ethan and Evan's teacher, he had come to enjoy immensely – so much that he was strongly considering becoming a teacher at the local medical school when Ethan and Evan started school next year. It was perfect timing.

Little did he know that Cristina had a surprise announcement of her own. An announcement she'd kept quiet for three months. She hoped that he would not be mad for waiting this long to tell him. But if he gave her any grief, which she highly doubted, she'd just bring up how he had done the same with his abrupt retirement decision.

Cristina took a deep breath. It was her turn.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's note: **Here it is - the final chapter of Little Hunts. I hope you enjoy.

**Beta:** The wonderful and talented **Shli.**

* * *

Owen walked down a row of neatly placed chairs; Ethan and Evan followed close behind, matching his every step. Both wearing formal fitted suits in honor of the special occasion. This morning, Owen took the time to do his hair neatly and splash on his best smelling aftershave. Ethan and Evan opted to style and gel their hair into "elegant" fauxhawks. The clacking sound of their polished dress shoes against the stone tiled ground echoed loudly in the empty court yard as they navigated toward their front row seats. Neither of them wanted to miss even a second of today's events. Upon reaching their seats, they grabbed the pamphlets that lay on top and sat back comfortably. Ethan took a seat on his father's right, and Evan taking a seat to his left. After prying their eyes from the gold letters that peppered the pamphlet, they both took a moment to admire how well the place cleaned up when devoid of lunch tables and filled with rather simple décor. It did not take long for the newly decorated lunch area court-yard at Seattle Grace Hospital to become littered with a sea of people – all taking time to acknowledge the three male Hunts with a wave of their hand or nodding of the head. It was a big day for them.

When all attendees had taken their seats and the media had finally finished setting up their giant cameras, the ceremony started. Derek Shepherd approached the microphone, tapped it lightly to make sure it was working and began to make a small speech. The words that escaped his mouth echoed over the speakers and caught everyone's attention, all except three people; the male Hunts. They were eagerly waiting for another speaker. Ethan pulled out a small note-pad scribbling down music notes for a song he and his brother were putting together. He had become quite the skilled drummer, while his brother Evan, who was puttering away in a similar note-pad, had become a proficient guitar player. Owen smiled as he watched them, thinking how they seemed to have grown up overnight. He remembered all the interest they held as small toddlers. He remembered the night when they had told him and Cristina that they wanted to be surgeons just like them – along with being famous musicians – talented athletes, and iron chefs. (And who were Cristina and Owen to tell them they couldn't become all of them.) So as Owen noticed the side notes that included the stats of their favorite sports teams – and ingredients to recipes, he smiled proudly to know that still, at the tender age of eleven, they were still aspiring and dedicated to reaching those goals in life. He only wondered what next year, when they entered high school at the young age of twelve, would bring to inspire them and possibly add another career to their already formidable list.

In unison, Ethan and Evan swiftly closed their note-pads, causing Owen to snap back into reality. They quickly shoved their pads inside the pocket of their coat and averted their attention to the next speaker – the one they were anxiously awaiting. The twins' eyes quickly fixated on her and proud smiles forming on their face. Owen's breath caught in his throat as she rose from her seat. She was beautiful, as beautiful as the first day he met her. She wore a scarf collared lilac tweed dress that looked beautiful against her ivory skin, and simple black flats. Her thick black tendrils were pulled back in an elegant twist. As she began to speak, the Hunts in the crowd admired her even more. The way she spoke, the tone of her voice, and clarity on each word drew the crowd in. They listened intently; she held their attention in ways that Derek failed to. Most people were surprised and impressed by the way this six-year-old spoke, but her family knew of the amazing capabilities she possessed. Owen inhaled deeply and offered his daughter a loving smile as he began to drift off in thought of the day Cristina told him they were having a daughter.

************

_Cristina took a deep breath. It was her turn. She cleared her throat loudly to get the attention of Owen and the twins. When she had it, she spoke._

"_So, I have an announcement to make. I'm pregnant. 3 months pregnant to be exact."_

_The words three months pregnant made Owen's jaw drop to the floor. However, Ethan and Evan eyes lit up in excitement._

"_So we're going to have another brother or sister?" Evan asked._

"_Or twin brothers and sisters?" Ethan asked excitedly._

_Cristina chuckled. "No, not twins. And I'm sure this time but you are going to have a little-"_

_Owen interjected before she could continue. "You're pregnant? You've been pregnant for three months and didn't tell me?"_

"_Well, it wasn't confirmed until three weeks ago," she stated._

_Owen looked at her quizzically. "What? So you're saying you didn't know you were three months pregnant until three weeks ago? Why did you wait so long to tell me?"_

"_Well, with all the research I was doing, I was staying late and working really hard at the hospital. I guess I must have mistaken any pregnancy symptoms for exhaustion. And, as for why I waited three weeks. I've been thinking of the perfect way to tell you we're having a little girl."_

_Owen took a moment to process all this information. He leaned against the counter and began to think. Lately he had noticed Cristina getting slightly rounder; but he had simply thought that it came with the territory of getting older, at which was more than alright with him. He had not wanted to bring it up since he liked breathing and living _– _Cristina would have undoubtedly killed him if he made a comment like that. Although he wanted to bombard her with further questions of "How could you not know?" or "How could you mistake morning sickness with exhaustion?" he decided not to, because deep down he knew Cristina. After all, this was the woman who had not known that she was carrying twins in her belly so many years ago. Finally, she had said the word "daughter." He was going to have a daughter. He wondered if his genes would be dominant during this pregnancy as well._

_Suddenly, the snapping of fingers in his face detached him from his thoughts._

"_Hello? Earth to Owen? Are you there?" Cristina asked, snapping her fingers rapidly._

"_Huh? Yeah, sorry I was just thinking." Owen answered shaking his head._

"_Are you okay?" Cristina asked with a concerned face._

"_Yeah, yeah. You were saying?"_

"_Well, I had planned on telling you after I got through with these dishes, but you went and sucked out all the excitement when you got me to agree on not sending these little kiddos to pre-school," Cristina explained._

_She retreated to her bedroom and retrieved a calendar for next year. She returned to the kitchen and handed it to Owen._

_He held it as if it were fine china and flipped through the pages delicately until he reached a rather bulky one. The month of March had an ultrasound picture pasted to it. Once Owen's eyes caught sight of this, he immediately became overwhelmed with emotion, so much so that tears welled in his eyes. He traced the outlining of the figure with the tip of his finger and smiled. His heart melted at the thought of a small baby girl in his arms – a baby girl that would look just like her mother._

"_A girl," he whispered, still not taking his eyes off the ultrasound photo._

"_Yeah," Cristina said softly._

_Just then something hit him. How did she know it was a girl? Three months was far too early to tell._

_He finally made his eyes avert from the picture and to Cristina. "Wait. You said you're three months. That's too early to know the sex of the baby, so how do you know it's a girl?_

"_I just know."_

_Owen furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" _

"_I have mommy powers, remember?" she stated, pausing to wink at the twins, "But seriously, I just know it's going to be a girl, Owen. I just have that gut feeling, you know?"_

_He did know as a matter of fact. It was, after all his gut that told him to choose to be with Cristina. And man, oh man, was he ever so grateful to his gut, because she is undoubtedly the best choice he's ever made. Owen nodded, and approached Cristina. He captured her lips with his and delved into a passionate kiss that had the twins sticking their fingers in their mouths and saying "Yuck."_

_When their lips separated Owen knelt down and gently nuzzled his face into her belly before planting small pecks._

_Ethan and Evan joined their father and placed their little angelic hands on their mom's belly, saying hello and introducing themselves as their big brothers._

_Nine months later, a day after Ethan and Evan's fifth birthday, Audrey Cristina Hunt entered their lives. She weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces _– _exactly one pound and one ounce less than the twins did. Audrey was the exact replica of Cristina; thick hair that already wanted to curl and a set of full lips. The only physical trait she shared with Owen were bright blue eyes._

************

"… so it is with great pleasure to honor my mother, Cristina Yang, a widely renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, with the prestigious Harper Avery Award."

Hearing his daughter mention his wife and Harper Avery award snapped Owen back to reality. He stood up from his chair, along with the twins, giving his wife a well deserved standing ovation for changing the face of medicine.

At last, Cristina finally won a Harper Avery Award. It felt good to beat out the always confident Preston Xavier Burke – but what made it sweeter was that her daughter was allowed to present her with the award. She accepted her award from Audrey, giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek and adjusted the microphone to speak.

The words that came out of Cristina's mouth did not match her thoughts: of course she was thankful for being acknowledged for her contributions to medicine, being noticed as an excellent surgeon; but her mind went to her children. After all the years she had waited and worked, she wasn't as excited as she thought she'd be. She had thought this was going to be her greatest accomplishment – but it wasn't.

It was in that moment that Cristina and Owen shared the same thought: none of this compared to their children. Having children changed the game completely. Having children opened up parts of their hearts they had never thought existed. Of all their experiences, accomplishments, and discoveries, none were as fulfilling as the day their three little Hunts entered their lives.


End file.
